superheroes (i'll be a villain with you)
by not a straight trumpet
Summary: Two rivaling groups with their own definition of heroism and power, a couple of antiques, one vigilante, one double agent, and a whole lot of confusion.
1. Chapter 1

**a/n:** so it's been six months since lexa's death, but i didn't really have any inspiration for a clexa fic (that is to say i wasn't as filled with spite as i usually am while writing for that pairing, 90% of my clexa writing is fueled by a hatred of jason rothenberg but aNYWAY) so i figured i'd post the first chapter of this. idk how long it'll be but it's definitely going to be multichapter. enjoy

* * *

The walk down the alleyway was one wrought with fear, as always, as the young woman breathed out puffs of crystalline air. Every step, every look, could mean life or death. The woman pulled her ratty jacket closer, shuddering, and she looked to the stars peeking out from above the clouds like curious children playing a game of hide-and-seek. Finally, after the usual millennia it took to get there, she approached a rusted, crooked door, nearly hanging from its hinges.

"Password?" a voice croaked from the other side. The woman flinched - they still hadn't fixed the intercom, despite everyone's complaints, and every breath in the direction of the damn thing sounded like the very world was tumbling around their ears.

"Whiplash," she replied easily. The door creaked open, and the woman scurried inside. "Y'know, we've had the same password for years now. I, uh, think that someone might get suspicious if we keep it up for much longer."

"Ah, well, what'd you suggest instead, Oumae?" the same person from the intercom sighed - Asuka Tanaka, lounging in a corner with an old hat clutched in her hands.

"W-well, what about . . . uh . . ." The woman looked to her bag. "Tuba-kun?"

"The instrument thing?" Yuuko Yoshikawa yelled from the other side of the room.

"Yeah. That."

 _"Genius!"_ Asuka yelled, flinging the hat aside. "Nobody will ever suspect it! You're promoted, Oumae!"

"We don't have an actual hierarchy here," Yuuko muttered. Asuka silenced her with a glare.

"I suppose you're right about that. It's just you, me, Kaori, Oumae, and . . . oh, speak of the devil! Taki, you've arrived just on time!" An older man, suit always perfectly pressed despite the dinginess of the room, stepped through the door with none of the precaution the others needed to take, and the woman's skin crawled.

"Yes," Taki simply replied. He rarely talked, instead orchestrating things from the background, and the woman hated it with every fiber of her being. "Kumiko? You've left your bag on the floor. Pick it up." Kumiko muttered a curse and picked up the bag, letting it rest on her lap as she protectively covered it with her hands. "Now, I'm sure you're all aware of the . . . risks, that this next job will take." There was a menacing glow in Asuka's eyes as she leaned against the rickety table, face set alight by the single bulb dangling precariously from the ceiling. Kumiko often wondered when - _when,_ not if, because it certainly would - it would fall.

"Of course I'm aware, Taki! What kind of _supervillain_ would I be if I wasn't?"

"You throw that word around quite a bit, Asuka," Kaori murmured. "Are you sure it's one to be used so lightly? After all, it's hardly something we can call ourselves." Asuka adjusted her glasses.

"Would you prefer _hero,_ then? Because they're two sides of the same coin, you know. If we're being entirely honest, I don't consider us to be supervillains at all! It just sounds more badass than _superhero._ What do you think of when you hear _superhero_ , Oumae?" Kumiko blinked. She wasn't used to being included in the meetings - if any of them were actually paid, she would have been considered an unpaid intern, and her presence was mostly there for security. Nobody would kidnap an innocent shop worker.

"Uh, m-maybe Captain America or s-something?" Asuka let out a triumphant snort, and the air turned a deep greenish-purple for a moment before returning to normal.

"See? Captain America is boring. Could Captain America do _this?"_ She picked up a lizard skittering across the cement floor and held it until it lay limp in her palm. Yuuko flicked her ribbon in discomfort.

"You don't have to show it off every chance you get," she huffed. "Ooh, I can poison things! I'm super great! Sometimes I hum songs that came out over a decade ago to be cool! Why don't _you_ be the leader, if you're so amazing?" Asuka's expression darkened.

"I used to be the vice president," she muttered. "I _used to,_ until Haruka decided that she couldn't do this anymore, and I let her go."

"Do you regret it?" Kaori murmured softly. Kumiko had heard this exchange a hundred times before, it seemed almost scripted, now. Both women knew just what to say, just what notes to hit, until everything returned to normal. The other three would just sit back and let it happen as the lizard fell to the floor.

"I've said it before, Kaori, I couldn't give less of a damn about her. That goes for all of you, too." This, Kumiko knew, was the part where they were all meant to be threatened, to know that this small gathering could disband at any moment like a thread that finally snapped after years and years of being pulled apart. It was too common of an occurrence nowadays for anyone to actually hear the weight behind her words, but Kumiko still felt her hands sweat and tremble. Asuka would sell them all out for a fair price, she knew that, and it had taken her far too long to accept that. Still, she wanted to protect her. She wanted to protect all of them, even if she was as good as dead in the eyes of Taki. It was through sheer luck and connections that Kumiko had remained a trusted part of the small group.

"So you say, Asuka, so you've always said," Kaori tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she relaxed further back into her chair. "I'm not one to call you a liar, of course, but deep down I know that you must care."

"I care about you," Yuuko whispered reverently. Kaori didn't hear her. Kumiko sometimes wanted to yell the obvious truth at both of them - Asuka didn't care, would _never_ care, and Kaori would never know that. It was frustrating enough to make Kumiko consider leaving altogether.

"We're getting off the subject," Asuka sighed, drumming her fingers on the table. Taki breathed a sigh of relief, having remained silent throughout the entire exchange. "The point, as you were saying, Taki, is . . ."

"This is not an easy job," the man said, wearing his usual placid smile. "We are, as you know, planning to steal several priceless instruments for-"

"Question?" Yuuko piped up.

"Yes?"

"By _instruments,_ do you mean actual instruments, or, like, instruments of murder?" Taki let out a chuckle.

"Now, why would we do that? Didn't you hear Tanaka's talk of heroes and villains? We are not killers. We are not bad people. We are, to be very simple about it, the most mysterious Robin Hood this city has known. In this day and age, it's simply impossible to remain out in the open without the police, or someone else, finding us. That is why we don't say anything. That is why we do all of this."

 _That's why_ we _do this,_ Kumiko thought. _You hide in the shadows while a group of twenty-something nobodies steal moderately priced art from local museums and send the money to people we'll never meet._

"So . . . real instruments, then?"

"Yes." Asuka loudly clapped, sending a puff of navy-green smoke into the air.

"Wonderful, wonderful! Now, I'm not sure if this is just me, but all that talk of morality has me simply _longing_ for a drink! Anyone else? C'mon, it's pathetic to head to the Euph alone! Oumae? You're an adult, right?"

"Isn't the Euph an antiques shop?" Yuuko interjected. "I mean, if you want to go and get drunk at an antiques shop, I'm not stopping you, but . . ."

"It's the street," Asuka sighed, exasperated. "Everyone's just too lazy to put up a sign, so everything down there is called the Euph. I've always thought it ridiculous, but you know. Isn't that such a wonderful metaphor for life?"

"We go tomorrow night," Taki said, ignoring Asuka's chatter. "Kaori, stay behind here at the usual meeting time. All of the others, you head to the instrument exhibition with your alibis at the ready. We'll enter once the place has closed."

"Uh, w-well, actually, I sorta have something I need to, uh, do tomorrow, it's really important and I c-can't miss it, not for anything, I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do." Kumiko hated the way her words shook, how they echoed around the room, mocking her.

"And what is this event?" Taki inquired. Kumiko gulped.

"It's, uh, my cousin's wedding!" she lied. "I'm her closest bridesmaid, it'd b-break her heart if I wasn't there!" Taki narrowed his eyes.

"It'll only take a day, correct?" Kumiko nodded with such vigor that she felt as if her head might fall off. "Very well. Return the day after next. This meeting is dismissed." Taki picked up his suitcase and trotted out the door. Yuuko quickly followed. Asuka raised an eyebrow when Kumiko hesitated.

"Oumae. It's time to head out. Some of you actually have houses, you know. Wouldn't it be such a shame if one more of our merry little band of misfits was left without a home to sleep in? Ah, it'd be such a tragedy!"

"Asuka, you don't need to pretend that we don't have a place to live," Kaori murmured softly. "We have the apartment, I think it's enough." Kumiko had gleaned, from vague context clues, that Asuka and Kaori shared a living space directly above the room she was currently standing in, but she had never once seen an actual flight of stairs that led to the higher levels, nor had she seen the supposed home itself. Yet, it would have been dangerous to ask, so she didn't, and left the room soon afterwards with her bag held to her chest. A small, shadowy figure darted by as she walked down the cracked pathway, but it left so quickly that Kumiko dismissed it as a figment of her imagination.

* * *

Aoi was, as usual, holed up in her office when Kumiko found her way back to the floor-level apartment, dropping her things on the ground with a sigh of relief. The lights had all been turned off, save for the one glowing in the closed-off corner, and she didn't even hesitate before falling onto her bed. There were times when Kumiko wished that she didn't live in a world so filled with mystery and intrigue, when she wasn't caught between things she couldn't care less about, and her old friend becoming a hermit in all but name didn't help much, either. Still, she forced herself into a space of mind that wasn't quite as cluttered with such thoughts, and soon she found herself falling fast asleep.

* * *

There wasn't much of a point in thinking back over whatever her dreams had been, Kumiko thought as she wearily poured herself a bowl of cereal. Her day job, surreal and borderline magical as it was, demanded complete attention. Aoi had left a note on the table.

 _Kumiko-_

 _My apologies, but something came up with the paper and I need to head out into the field to do some research, I've attached a few pages of the fourth draft should you wonder what it is that I'm doing. I left some instant noodles in the fridge._

 _-Aoi_

Kumiko set down the neatly written note with a sigh, slinging her bag over her shoulder as she left it behind. She couldn't remember for the life of her when the last time she had actually had a face-to-face conversation with Aoi, but she was fairly certain that it had been at least several months. Kumiko hesitated over the papers clipped to the note, wondering if it would be wise to take them, but ultimately decided against it. Risks, she had often found, weren't worth much.

* * *

The light jingling of windchimes alerted the other employees to Kumiko's entrance as she stepped into the warm haven of the antiques shop, old televisions haphazardly stacked atop each other while boxes of unsorted files threatened to take over the store.

"Hey, Kumiko!" Natsuki greeted her with a lopsided grin, holding up a grandfather clock with one hand while pulling off her flannel jacket with the other. "Could ya help me out here? The boss isn't gonna be happy if we - _oof -_ break something expensive like this." Kumiko dropped her bag and hurried to Natsuki's side, propping up the grandfather clock until it stood safely along the edge of the store. "It's so _hot_ in here, geez. Couldn't they afford to turn down the heating?" She had a point. While the air outside was crisp and cold, the interior of the shop felt akin to an oven. Kumiko hung her sweater on an intricately carved coat hanger that had probably belonged to someone with more money than the entire population of the block before she was born.

"I'll tell Mizore and Nozomi to leave the door open," she said, slipping behind the counter.

"Yeah, well, knowing those two, they'll probably leave the thing open just because they were too busy snogging or something." Kumiko snorted.

 _"Snogging?"_

"It was in the crossword the other day. Informal, British, a word for kissing or caressing amorously. Figured that it worked well enough for them."

"It's kinda nice, though."

"What, a pair of nerds making out all the time?" Natsuki twirled a vintage thimble around in her fingers.

"Yeah. I don't know, I g-guess it just sorta gives me a little bit of hope." It was Natsuki's turn to snort.

"You're a hopeless romantic, ya know that?"

"How could I forget?" Kumiko dramatically held a tattered novel to her forehead, her worries forgotten for the moment.

"Alright, how about this- the two of us head to the Euph - the bar, not this antiques shop - and try to see if there're any cute girls? It might be fun." Kumiko was about to say yes when she remembered the stack of papers back at the apartment, the hasty lies about a cousin's wedding.

"I'm s-sorry, but I can't." Natsuki's expression drooped.

"Why not?"

"Well, uh-"

"Sorry we're late!" Nozomi called. Kumiko had never believed in the saying _saved by the bell_ until this very moment, but now she was ready to hold it close to her heart and whisper sweet nothings to it, for how grateful she was towards the pair that made their way through the shop.

"Keep the door open, will ya?" Natsuki yelled from the other side of the room, wrangling the grandfather clock again. "It's practically suffocating in here!"

"Is it my turn to stand at the desk today?" Mizore inquired. Natsuki shook her head.

"Nope, that'd be good old Kumiko here. You two are on record duty." Nozomi nodded dutifully.

"Yes, ma'am!" The duo walked down to the basement as Kumiko watched the door for any incoming customers.

"Y'know, we won't go out of business for a while," Natsuki said, leaning against the counter with a bracelet in her hands. "People love old crap like this. It just takes 'em a little while to get here."

"Are you sure?"

"I don't know if you've noticed, Kumiko, but I'm not really an optimistic person. At all. If _I_ think that this place'll be fine, then it probably will be. Now, I need to check on those two and make sure that they aren't playing a seductive song in the basement or something." Kumiko nodded as Natsuki headed down the stairs, and Kumiko was left alone.

* * *

Customers came and went, as they often did, sometimes trying on a hat or looking at a painting only to set it down and leave without another word. Business was slow, but Kumiko didn't mind it. There was a certain quality to the antiques shop that made it seem almost unreal, like she had unknowingly stepped into another dimension, and she relished that feeling. It was nice, to feel the magic in a place so mundane when her bitter reality was grounded in such fantastical things. Still, there was never enough time spent in her day job, and Kumiko soon ducked out of the antiques shop as the pink sky and the setting sun beckoned.

* * *

Kumiko would be lying if she said that she had never considered buying a bulletproof vest. Despite her position as a relatively unimportant person on both sides, an intern, an errand-runner, she was always in danger, and she hated every second of it. The antiques shop was her in-between, her safe space, and she'd punch Asuka in the face before letting anything take her away from it. Still, she was needed tonight, and so she trudged along the cobblestone road until she reached the brightly lit house at the end of the road. She knocked on the door three times before stepping back. Hazuki flung the door open, nearly sending it off of its hinges, as Kumiko stepped inside.

"Kumiko! You should've told us that you'd be late, I would've waited! As things are, though . . ." Hazuki looked down as Midori blew past her, carrying a rather large suitcase above her head. "We were just about to get going. Can't miss something as important as this, you know!" Kumiko felt as if someone had just dropped a rather large boulder into the pit of her stomach.

"W-what're you going to do?" Midori set down the suitcase and clenched her fists.

"They're about to commit an unforgivable act," she murmured.

"What is it?" Kumiko asked, knowing full well what Midori would say next.

"They're going to take the very souls of music from the masses."

"A group of criminals is going to steal some instruments," Haruka clarified, walking down the steps in her usual calm, motherly fashion. "More importantly, however, they'll be prepared for a fight."

"But so will we!" Hazuki piped up, hoisting her spear. Kumiko tried her best to pretend her stomach wasn't flipping around into knots. "This'll be the day, Kumiko. This'll be the day we bring them to justice."

"We've been tracking this specific group for quite a while, now," Haruka added. "They're a group of self-proclaimed Robin Hoods, working in the shadows and stealing whatever they can without much care for what follows in their wake."

"More importantly, one of them has a power unlike the ones we've seen before. It's horrible, the way they're stealing music like this." Midori had gone back to lifting the oversized suitcase.

"I know who they are," Kumiko sighed. "I'm a part of this team too, remember?"

"Yeah, but there're things we talk about without you!" Hazuki chirped. Midori stamped on her foot, hard.

"We've talked for long enough, now, haven't we?" Haruka interjected. "If we don't leave soon, they'll get away with it, and then we wouldn't be very good superheroes, now would we?"

"W-wait!" Everyone turned to look at Kumiko. "I, uh, h-have reasons to believe that . . . er, that is, all logic points to the fact that . . . uh, they won't be there tonight!"

"We can't risk this, Kumiko!" Midori squeaked indignantly as Hazuki clutched her foot in pain.

"Let her finish, Midori." Haruka spoke calmly, with all the gentleness of a matriarch that the group had grown to expect, and yet Midori quieted down immediately.

"W-well, what if this is just a big trap?" Kumiko felt like a mouse trapped by the tail, writhing and struggling, and she couldn't stand it. "It's almost too easy, right? They could try and, uh, kill you or something! And then there wouldn't be any heroes at all. Sometimes it's better to pick your battles, y'know?" Haruka tensed.

"Yes . . . a decoy . . . that is quite a bit like Asuka, isn't it?" Kumiko nodded vigorously.

"Y-yeah, it is!" She hoped dearly that Haruka wouldn't ask her how she knew the name so well. "Right, guys? Hazuki?"

"I'm with Kumiko on this one."

"Midori?"

"I still don't like it," the smaller girl admitted, "-but, if it means I can continue to live another day, then I guess we have to, right?"

"You're all so brave," Haruka murmured. "You're all so brave, and smart, and incredible. You're better than I was at your age, you know."

"You're only a few years older than us!" Hazuki yelped. "Don't get all old lady on us now!"

"Well, if we've reached this agreement, then Kumiko should be on her way, right?" Haruka turned back to head inside, white robes billowing in the wind. "Hazuki, Midori, it's getting cold. You two should probably get back into your rooms." Midori, still somewhat sullen over the travesty of music being stolen, and Hazuki, still hopping on one foot, went back into the house with varied mutters.

"You're not their mother, you know that, r-right?" Kumiko muttered, once Hazuki and Midori were out of earshot.

"I know. Still, I have to be something close. An older sister, maybe, or a mentor figure. They deserve that much."

"You gave them a home, right? Isn't that enough?" Haruka lightly chuckled.

"You have a good soul, Kumiko. Don't waste it." With that, she turned back inside and shut the door, and Kumiko was left in the dark with nothing but the lanterns along the pathway to guide her back home.

* * *

The lights were off, Aoi slumped over her desk with a half-full mug of coffee by her side, and despite herself, Kumiko picked up the papers and began to read the words she had seen revised so many times, in so many ways.

 _A Study of the Possibility of Superhuman Abilities (Introduction - page 4)_

 _-one should note that, evidently, the powers aren't much like the ones we see in comic books. No, in fact, they're much more subtle - sources who prefer to remain anonymous talk of people with strength only slightly surpassing that of a bodybuilder, speed only slightly surpassing that of an Olympic runner, and so on and so forth. There is no flight, no laser vision or strength enough to overturn a building. Truly, it is not the powers themselves that have caused interest in certain circles - it is their source. Where did they come from? What is their purpose? Why do the people who possess them remain so stubbornly away from the limelight? To these questions, there are only the limpest traces of answers._


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n:** i'm still shaking over that pv and you can definitely expect me to write a lot of fics about that but for now here's another chapter of this au, which is going much faster than my other aus for the sake of time

also kudos to iwannafeellikeseabreeze on tumblr for coming up with the idea of shuichi basically being the secretary guy from ghostbusters (2016)

* * *

There were very few things that Kumiko hated more than the earpieces that Asuka had forced the entire group to wear at all times a few months ago - cold, uncomfortable little devices that hardly even served a purpose. One of those things happened to be Haruka's secretary, Shuichi Tsukamoto, sitting at the older woman's house with that usual dim-witted smile on his face (and as for why someone who didn't actually run a business needed a secretary, Kumiko didn't know).

"Hey, Shuichi," Kumiko said as she adjusted the beanie on her head with one hand, the other holding a rather large mug of coffee. She was not a fan of early-morning meetings - or any meetings led by Haruka in the daylight, really. She never let Kumiko inside at night, which meant that there wasn't much need for a disguise during those late meetings, but the morning was a different story altogether.

"Do you need help with that?" Shuichi asked, pointing to the beanie with his pen.

"No." Kumiko had to resist snapping at him. Any traces of hostility, any broken lines in the invisible script, and Haruka would become suspicious. It had already been an uncomfortable decision, she knew, for the matriarch of the house to even begin to trust her, but Kumiko's unfaltering dedication (a dedication that had nothing to do with the noble-seeming crime-fighting that the house was so intent on, a dedication that stemmed only from a need to protect her friends) managed to convince her.

"Kumiko! Hey!" Hazuki leaped down the spiral staircase in one bound, a bright smile on her face. "Midori, I win the bet!"

"You were betting on me?"

"Yep! Midori was sure that you'd be late, but I said no, she'd get here on time, and I won!"

"I'm glad you have that much faith in me," Kumiko said dryly. "Anyway, did Haruka give you any information about _why_ this meeting is so urgent?"

"Nope!" The answer came from Midori this time, walking down the stairs at a considerably slower pace than Hazuki had. "We won't need to wait for much longer, though." As if on cue, Haruka glided down the stairs with her usual regal aura about her, hands tracing the railing as she reached the bottom.

"I'm glad you're here, Kumiko." Haruka seemed exhausted, her back hunched and her hands shaky, and Kumiko guiltily wondered if she had seen the headline so bluntly printed in the newspaper that morning. "You were . . . right, on some level. Those criminals were dangerous, they could have kidnapped any of us . . . or worse. I couldn't have let that happen."

 _They wouldn't have hurt you,_ Kumiko thought, biting her tongue. _They wouldn't have done anything to harm you, they're just a bunch of idiots with some sense of heroism, just like you three._ "Y-yeah, I'm glad you're all safe."

"Still," Haruka murmured, straightening her back as she began to pace. "What if they become braver, bolder? We need to bring them to justice, you must know that. Otherwise . . . otherwise we're not really doing anything, are we? I've never been much of a leader, even back when . . . even back when . . ." Midori put a comforting hand on her shoulder, looking down at the wooden floor.

"I think you're a wonderful leader, Haruka," Shuichi piped up. Kumiko had forgotten that he was there. It seemed like everyone else had, too, though Hazuki gave him a small, flirty wave before turning back to Haruka. Kumiko rolled her eyes.

"I've tried the best I can to track their movements, and I think I've figured out the general area of their base," Haruka continued, beginning to head in the direction of the house's living room. Kumiko, Hazuki, and Midori followed. Shuichi continued twirling his pen.

"Wow," Hazuki breathed. A rather large whiteboard sat in the middle of the living room, covered in string and thumbtacks with newspaper clippings and photographs pinned beneath them.

"I figured that it would be for the best if we went there tonight, using the night sky as our cover, and searched for them with everything we have. From this, I've garnered that they live - or hide out, at least - a few blocks down from the street known as the Euph." Kumiko gulped. "We'll find them, peacefully ask them to surrender, and then take them in to the authorities."

"Yeah!" Hazuki and Midori cheered.

"Uh, w-would it be okay if I, uh, sat this one out?" Kumiko mumbled, running through her usual list of excuses. "My c-cousin is having a wedding and I need to, uh, g-go on the plane tonight or I'll miss the wedding, it'd hurt her feelings if I wasn't there!" Haruka was quite a bit more understanding than Asuka had been, simply putting a hand on Kumiko's shoulder in a way that made Kumiko feel like she was a student and Haruka was a doting teacher.

"That's perfectly fine, Kumiko, but on one condition."

"Yeah?" Kumiko shifted uncomfortably on her feet, pulling the beanie further down. Haruka produced something from her pocket.

"You'll need to wear this. I'll call you on it if anything happens, alright?" Kumiko cringed before she even looked down, knowing full well that she'd see an identical earpiece to the one uncomfortably pinned to her head in the palm of Haruka's hands. Excuses failed her as she reluctantly took it and shoved it in the deepest parts of her coat, hoping that she'd be able to forget about it and thus manage to avoid Haruka's gentle, unnerving scrutiny. "We strike tonight at ten, sans Kumiko. The meeting is dismissed." Hazuki and Midori flopped down on the couch, practically in unison, and Kumiko gave Haruka a quick wave before hurrying out of the house with as much speed as she could muster.

"Rough day, Kumiko?" Shuichi called. Kumiko didn't humor him with an answer.

* * *

The antiques shop was, as usual, a safe haven unlike any other, and Kumiko could have cried with relief when Natsuki made a snarky remark about how late she was. Nozomi and Mizore had built a fort out of cardboard boxes and waited a solid ten minutes before making a single sound alerting Kumiko to their presence, and it occurred to her once again that she wouldn't mind working there forever, in a simple kind of peacefulness, but the earpieces pulled her down and reminded her of things she'd rather not recall when she could.

"Hey, Kumiko, is something bothering ya?" Natsuki leaned against a shelf, as she often did when customer service was slow and she had nothing better to do, and Kumiko joined her. "You've been kinda tense all day."

"It's . . . it's not r-really that important."

"Alright. I respect that." Kumiko could feel her pulse quicken, fingers pale and clenched into a fist, and she realized that she wanted to tell Natsuki, wanted to tell her _so badly_ and yet she couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't.

"I have these two groups of . . . friends, I guess," she sighed, exhaling the words in one breath as if they were a puff of cigarette smoke instead of a sentence. "They _hate_ each other, but I love them all, and I keep on trying to keep them out of each other's way and it's, uh, well, it's kind of exhausting, y'know?"

"Ha, tell me about it. I once dated this girl who kept on going on and on about her ex, and then I realized later that we had both dated the same girl and the 'ex' was one of my closest friends. Nozomi, to be exact." The coworker in question waved to her from a box before being pulled back in by a half-smirking Mizore. "What I'm trying to say, Kumiko, is that ya can't let it stress ya out too much."

"Here." Kumiko didn't know what came over her as she took off the beanie and, in one motion, yanked the earpiece from her ear and handed it to Natsuki. "We can, uh, talk to each other with these things." Natsuki held up the tiny gadget as if she was expecting it to explode (and she wouldn't have been entirely unjustified in thinking that, to be quite honest).

"Your hair's sticking up," she chuckled. Kumiko blinked. "This is probably one of the weirder gifts I've gotten over the years, but I'll take it."

"Thanks," Kumiko murmured.

"You're not supposed to say thanks when you're the one giving someone a gift, ya nerd," Natsuki snorted. "Anyway, I'll figure out how this thing works later. For now, I think there's an old lady over there who wants a vintage couch."

* * *

Kumiko left the antiques shop later that night with a grim determination in her step, practically racing for the little room down the alleyway.

"Password?" Asuka grumbled.

"Whiplash. Or, uh, Tuba-kun. I need to talk to Taki, n-now!" As bold as Kumiko's words were, she shook in her spot, not even stepping inside when Asuka made a sweeping bowing gesture.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" she muttered. "Must I remind you, dear Oumae, you weren't even there for the raid last night?" A pile of shiny instruments lay in the corner, but Kumiko hardly gave them a second look.

"I s-saw people going in this direction, looking really angry, you need to go, _now!"_

"Is there any credibility to what you're saying?" Taki said, his smile as blank and vicious as ever.

"Please, _please,_ believe me, they're on their way and they'll take you and h-hurt you and-" Kaori silenced her with a hand on her shoulder.

"What do you think, Yuuko?" she murmured. Yuuko flapped her ribbon irritably.

"I don't believe her," she sighed, "-but, y'know, she's freaked out and I'm not a risk-taker. I don't . . . I don't want to die." There was a hint of weakness in her voice, a falter in her usual tone, and Kumiko tried to give her a look of sympathy before her glare cut into anyone's skin too deeply.

"Perhaps this isn't the best business for you, then," Taki bluntly said, and Kumiko had never wanted to punch him more than she did in that moment.

"They're going to be here any minute, please, please go and then we can-" Kumiko was cut off by the sound of feet pattering on the cobblestone street, and with it a sense of dread filled up her stomach until it threatened to consume her entire being.

"We know you're in there, criminals!" Midori squeaked. Kumiko looked back and forth, hair buffered by the wind, the night air threatening to tear her in two. She was still standing outside, still in plain sight, there was nowhere to go and nowhere to hide and-

-and Kumiko's feet weren't on the ground anymore, she was being carried by a figure in black (or maybe it was dark purple, she couldn't tell) as the brightly lit room in the alleyway grew further and further away.

"Hey!" she snapped, trying to wriggle out of the stranger's grasp as soon as her wits returned. "Let go of me, y-you . . . person! Get off!" The stranger didn't speak, their face hidden by the nighttime, but Kumiko could see long dark hair flowing out behind them, still effortlessly holding her underneath their arm. _I'm going to die here, aren't I?_ she thought, slowly giving up on the idea of escape. _Not in battle, keeping my friends safe, not at an old lady's nursing home._ Yuuko's face flashed in her mind, the quietly spoken _I don't want to die_ ringing in her ears, and all Kumiko could do was lie limp as the stranger carried her to a brightly lit part of the town, streetlights glowing shades of blue while people enjoyed their lives without a single care in the world.

"I'm sorry," the stranger muttered, sharply turning the corner into a closed shop. Finally, they set Kumiko down on the floor with more care than she would have expected. "I wouldn't have done it unless I absolutely needed to, you must know that." The shop was oddly well-lit, if a bit dusty, and Kumiko could now see that her apparent kidnapper was a girl hardly her own age, slight and pale, dressed in a cloak that made her look like an old-timey witch.

"W-why'd you take me, then?" Kumiko stuttered, scooting away on the scuffed wooden floor.

"You would have been collateral damage," the girl replied simply. "It would've haunted my conscience to see you die out there." Kumiko felt her breath catch in her throat.

"Then, the others, they're...?"

"Safe. At least, that's how I saw it." Kumiko was too tired to say anything about the odd statement. "I'm not a hero, you must know that. You probably won't see me again, either." The girl looked down at the floor, and Kumiko wondered briefly if she was lonely. "I operate on my own agenda, and I'd prefer it if you didn't speak of this encounter to anyone." The girl opened the door, holding it for Kumiko, and she was just about to leave again when Kumiko stopped her.

"W-wait!"

"Hmm?" The girl's eyes were a brilliant shade of violet, she idly noticed.

"What's your name?"

"Reina. Reina . . . Kousaka." With that, Reina dashed out into the street, not another words spoken between the two girls, and Kumiko was left with just barely enough bus fare to get her somewhere close to home.


	3. Chapter 3

**a/n:** i've sorta lost steam for this fic but i'm determined to make it to the end before s2 starts so here we go

* * *

Aoi didn't question it when Kumiko arrived home in the middle of the night, later than she ever had, but then again she rarely questioned anything. Kumiko silently cursed the existence of superpowers, the strife between the two groups and her damnable part of it all. Her friends could all be dead, for all she knew, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. The bed, cold and uncomfortable as usual, was a welcoming presence as she slipped away into dreamland.

* * *

Kumiko slipped out at the earliest hours of the day, worry flooding her veins until she found herself walking robotically in the direction of Haruka's house. The morning sun didn't help, beating down on the helpless citizens below as Kumiko forged through the streets. The girl from the previous night - Reina, she had said her name was - still remained in her mind, and she wondered where she was.

"That's not important," she said to the sky. "What's important is making sure that everyone's . . . okay." Kumiko nearly shook in her spot at the thought of the others _not_ being okay. _It'll have all been for nothing, otherwise, and I can't let that happen. I can't._ The thought of the people she cared about coming to blows was enough for her to push ahead as the familiar house came into view. "H-Haruka!" she yelled, scrambling up the steps. "Hazuki! Midori!" Hazuki opened the door with a raised eyebrow.

"Kumiko? You look like you've seen a ghost!" It was all she could do not to wrap the other girl in a hug in that moment.

"Haruka and Midori. Are they . . . are they okay?" Hazuki blinked.

"Why wouldn't they be?" Kumiko let out a hoarse laugh, eyes wet with relief. "Those . . . those _criminals_ got away last night." A pause. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be at your cousin's wedding right now?" Kumiko fumbled for an excuse for what must have been the millionth time that week, and she hated how easily she could lie with every fiber of her being.

"She, uh, c-cancelled on me at the last possible minute, I flew back this morning."

"Oh. Okay! I'll go get Haruka, she's sorta bummed after last night's failure, so seeing you might cheer her up!"

"Y-yeah. Great." _Whoever glamorized double lives as something cool was an idiot._ Midori came to the door soon after Hazuki had gone back inside, greeting Kumiko with a small wave.

"It's not your fault," she squeaked. "We would've lost them with or without your help, you need to know that!"

"Thanks," Kumiko muttered.

"Still . . ." Midori nearly punched a hole in the door. "We need to be more careful, now! We won't let them get away next time, I can promise you that."

"Great." Kumiko couldn't muster up the energy to respond in anything more than one-word snaps, and she wondered - not for the first time - if she wasn't suited to this life at all, if it was changing her. She banished the thought as Haruka stepped out of the house with her shoulders hunched and her robes torn.

"Thank goodness you're alright," Haruka murmured, wrapping Kumiko in a tight hug. "I was worried, but I suppose I had no reason to be. You'll be more careful next time, right?"

"I didn't even know that anything h-had happened," Kumiko said. "I was on a plane, remember?" _This is your bullcrap lie. Stick to it._

"Yes, but anything could've happened."

"You could say that about any one of us, ma'am," Shuichi called from his position at the desk. "I don't know what it is you do, but it doesn't look safe." Hazuki swooned. Kumiko rolled her eyes.

"We aren't meeting about anything important for the next few hours, but you're welcome to come in for breakfast," Haruka said, still holding Kumiko in her embrace. It wasn't an entirely unwelcome feeling - the warmth, the softness of Haruka's robes, it all made Kumiko feel like she was a little kid in her mother's arms again. Still, she felt uneasy with four pairs of eyes on her, and she found herself breaking away as she backed up.

"I, er, sorta need to go and work at my day job," she mumbled. "Still have to make money, y'know!" Kumiko waved to the group one more time before hurrying off, her bag thumping against her sides in a nearly rhythmic fashion.

* * *

"Rough night?" Natsuki chuckled. Kumiko stumbled into the antiques shop with a slumped figure, practically ready to collapse on the floor.

"I . . . ran . . . all the way . . . here," she panted. Nozomi was on cashier duty today, she realized. Mizore wordlessly slid along the shelves like a ghost, organizing things in such a way that they didn't seem quite as cluttered. Kumiko dropped her bag, the frayed zipper coming undone, and several papers flew out like black-and-white birds tumbling to the floor.

"What's that?" Natsuki asked. Kumiko shrugged - she honestly didn't have a clue. "'There has been scarce photographic evidence detailing this phenomenon, but several eyewitness accounts match up in such a way that it is quite likely that they are legitimate. These accounts describe people such as a small girl lifting things twice her size, a woman poisoning anything with a simple touch, and small bursts of fire coming from a woman with a pointed fixture on her head.' Let me guess, batcrap-crazy roommate?" Kumiko nodded.

"She's been working on this essay for over a year now." Natsuki shuffled the papers back into order before putting them back in Kumiko's bag. "I'm worried about her."

"I'd be worried, too, if my roommate was spouting crazy-ass things like that. Conspiracy theorists are cool, I'll give them that, but this . . . this is kinda ridiculous. Superpowers? Really?" Kumiko swallowed back the bile in her throat, the bitter laugh that rose and fell on her tongue.

"If only you knew," she muttered.

"What?"

"N-nothing!"

* * *

The day passed in a hazy, warm blur, Reina still lingering in Kumiko's mind. She tried to put the thought away, to dismiss it as something useless - she would never see the mysterious girl again, after all, so there was no need to continue thinking about her - but she kept on returning to Kumiko's thoughts regardless.

"It wouldn't be the end of the world to take a day off, ya know," Natsuki commented that afternoon as Kumiko tried to put a lamp on a high shelf. She nearly dropped it.

"W-what?"

"You're stressed out about something, right?"

"Nope!" Kumiko lied, leaning on one of the shelves with a fake grin plastered on her face. "I'm not stressed at all! See, does this look like someone who's stressed?"

"Kind of, yeah." Natsuki plopped down on the floor, setting aside a deck of cards that looked like it had seen better days. "Why don't ya leave early today, I'll come up with some excuse and meet ya at your place tonight? Just the two of us, and your roommate if she leaves her office. We could watch a movie or something."

"Sure," Kumiko heard herself say. "W-why not?" Natsuki grinned.

"That's my girl."

* * *

Kumiko found herself wandering aimlessly around town, her direction at the mercy of her feet. It wasn't until she had gone several miles that she realized where she was - the area that Reina had taken her the night before, no longer a surreal world lit up by the beautiful lights but instead a simple cluster of shops about to close and businesspeople shuffling along, dull and plain in the limelight. Kumiko was just about to turn around and head back when she saw a dark shape turn a corner.

 _No,_ she told herself. _It's not her. I'm not going to run after a complete stranger. I'm not._ She didn't quite know what came over her as she slowly approached the figure, hands quivering, and she nearly jumped back when she saw a pair of violet eyes blinking back at her.

"It's you," Reina said, pulling down her hood.

"It's me," Kumiko repeated. _Wow. Great conversational skills, me._

"I wasn't expecting to see you again," Reina continued, beginning to walk ahead. Kumiko struggled to catch up. "We should talk somewhere quiet."

"Do you have some kind of, uh, secret hideout or something?" Kumiko couldn't help but imagine a high-tech fortress filled with people working with Reina, perhaps keeping the civilians safe without a single person knowing. Perhaps, Kumiko dared herself to think, perhaps Reina was the answer to all of this.

"I wouldn't call it that, exactly, but I suppose it is somewhat of a secret." Reina continued walking in silence, her cloak trailing along the ground, and Kumiko didn't pry any further. For that, at least, Reina seemed thankful.

* * *

"This is it," Reina said, opening the door to a small apartment. There was nothing flashy in it, nothing noteworthy or mysterious except for a pile of books with indiscernible titles and a gleaming trumpet lying in one corner. "Nobody will spy on us here."

"Y-you have people who would spy on you?" Kumiko still didn't know quite what it was that compelled her to follow this stranger, this woman. Reina took off her cloak, hanging it on a splintered hook.

"I hate that thing," she muttered. "It's a way to remain hidden, though, so I do what I can to manage."

"Doesn't it, uh, kinda make you look _more_ suspicious?" Reina shrugged.

"I haven't been caught yet, so I figured that it works."

"W-who's after you?" Reina sat down on the scratchy carpeted floor, devoid of furniture save for a single leather chair, and Kumiko followed suit.

"A lot of people, I suppose. More importantly, why did you follow me? Why are you here?" Kumiko gulped.

"W-well, uh . . ." _I don't know. I don't know, I don't know anything and I'm just trying to make it through this weird double life I've been forced into and I hate it._ "You seemed kinda lonely." Reina flinched, her grip on the carpet tightening.

"It's not of your concern if I'm lonely," she muttered. "Besides, you seem to know a thing or two about that. Hiding, and the like." Kumiko briefly wondered if this woman had been following her for longer than she realized. "And no, I haven't been tracking your every move. That'd be a waste of time."

"Thanks."

"I could tell, that's all. The people who've known me have said that I'm quite perceptive." There was a hint of smugness in Reina's voice, and Kumiko began to think that perhaps the mysterious woman she had been picked up by the previous night, the mysterious woman whose apartment she was now sitting in, wasn't quite as elegant and unflinching as she seemed. It was comforting, in a way. Reina was human, no matter what her agenda might've been.

"So, uh, what do you do? When you're n-not running from the authorities, I mean." Reina wordlessly picked up a dark blue book from the corner and flipped through it, fingers occasionally lingering on yellowed pages for a few seconds longer than others. Eventually, she held it out, and Kumiko stared blankly for a moment before Reina set the book down with a _thud._

"I've been studying certain . . . aspects of those things people call superpowers." Kumiko's heart jumped in her chest.

 _She knows. She knows about them, she isn't on either side and she knows and she's a good person._ "Sorry if this is a p-personal question, but do you . . . have one? A superpower?" Reina froze, cheeks drained of any color, as she ripped a clump of carpet fuzz from underneath her hand. The rest of the carpet was yanked upwards and fell with a soft flutter when Reina let go of it. Kumiko didn't say anything more on the matter.

"I'm convinced that the stars are connected to it, somehow." Reina continued talking as if nothing had happened, pointing out a part of the book with a pale finger. Kumiko peered at the drawing - a diagram, with little cartoon stars and people drawn with words in a language Kumiko couldn't read written next to them in neat, tiny handwriting. "I created that code so that people wouldn't know what to do with it, if they found it."

"Is that why you're worried? B-because of this?" Reina shook her head.

"I'd prefer not to talk about it." Kumiko wondered if Reina was _trying_ to talk in circles.

"In any case, you should get going. It'd be suspicious, if you disappeared for such a long period of time in a place that isn't supposed to exist." Kumiko didn't question the strange way she phrased the encouragement to leave as she headed for the door.

"H-hey, Reina?"

"Yes?" Kumiko's hand rested on the cold doorknob.

"If it's not, uh, putting your life in danger or anything, would you want to . . . d-do this again sometime?" Kumiko felt strangely warm, saying it, and her hand shook. Reina let out a short breath of relief.

"Yes," she murmured. "I'd like that a lot, actually."

"Do you have a phone or anything?"

"I patrol that area quite a bit. You'll find me if I want to be found." Kumiko let out a chuckle, despite herself.

"You're pretty overdramatic when you want to be," she said, slipping out the door. Reina gave her a flippant wave goodbye before shutting the door in her face.

* * *

Kumiko wouldn't have been able to explain the big, goofy grin that spread across her face as she left the apartment complex, wouldn't have been able to explain the way she felt lighter than anything when she walked home, wouldn't have been able to explain the way that she practically flung herself at the couch and was just about to roll around on it when she realized that couches usually didn't feel this warm.

"I didn't know ya were into that kind of thing, Kumiko." Kumiko's face flushed red as she skittered back across the dim room. Natsuki snorted. "A warning would be great, next time."

"I forgot that I gave you the house key."

"I didn't." Natsuki twirled a shiny rabbit-shaped keychain around her finger, smirking as she slid off the couch to join Kumiko. "Your roommate didn't even notice that I was there."

"She doesn't notice anything," Kumiko muttered. Natsuki seemed at a loss for words, for once in her life, and simply leaned against Kumiko and let her head rest on her shoulder.

"I've said it before, right? People suck. That's just the way things go. Do I wish that it was different? Sure, of course I do. Nobody wants the people they care about to leave or drift away or . . . do whatever that is." Natsuki gestured to Aoi's office, only lit by the artificial glow of her computer screen. "All we can do is rely on ourselves enough to make it through times when that sort of thing happens."

"You're an optimist," Kumiko said, the bitterness in her tone clear. "W-what if there's someone who _isn't_ like that?" Natsuki shrugged, folding her hands behind her head.

"Then they probably don't exist." There was an uncomfortable silence, a tension laying thick and uncomfortable in the air like the humidity on a particularly hot summer day. "We're all inherently selfish, y'know. Ya can preach about wanting the best for someone all ya want, but when it gets down to it . . . self-preservation's the only thing humans are really any good at."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"You're walking around like a dope in love. I won't pry, but I'd be careful if I were you." Natsuki tapped the earpiece she had awkwardly fastened to one of her piercings. "Ya keep a lot of crap secret, Kumiko, but I can usually figure it out given enough time." Kumiko nearly snorted.

 _I'm living the life of a dollar-store comic book. That's not the easiest thing to decipher._ "I met a girl," she muttered instead. "She's r-really nice, and I don't know her that well, but I trust her."

"Mistake number one," Natsuki tutted. Kumiko shot her a glare. "Okay, okay. How about we forget all about this and play a game of cards? I swiped a pack from the antiques shop earlier, I think it was used to brand an old drugstore or something." Kumiko nodded, grateful for the change of subject, as Natsuki started to deal the cards with a hesitation in her hands that made Kumiko wonder what her friend had gone through, what she was remembering in that moment. "Man, we're both messes, aren't we?" Kumiko blinked back tears, still nodding.

"Yeah." The cards were blurry, diamonds and spades floating in front of her eyes. "Y-yeah, we're a couple of messes."

* * *

"I have to say, Oumae, I wasn't expecting you back after last time." Asuka's tone was judgmental, her eyes betraying nothing but hostility as Kumiko cautiously crept into the dimly lit room. Her night with Natsuki had ended all too soon, and she was thrust back into this world she hated so much as soon as she received a call on that damnable earpiece.

"She very nearly saved us, Asuka," Kaori murmured. "Imagine what could've happened if we . . . if we hadn't gotten that warning."

"We would've died," Yuuko bluntly added, tiny sparks bursting from the palms of her hand.

"Is that a thank-you to her, then?" Taki inquired. Kumiko bristled. "It should be remembered that-"

"Yeah, yeah, we've gotta keep it professional! You've _told_ us before!" Yuuko kicked her chair aside, looking ready to fling Taki out the window. "Where'd your superiority complex come from, anyway?" Kumiko couldn't help but think of a tiny dog yapping at a large wolf as Yuuko was restrained by a nervous Kaori. "Did it come from the place where you dump all of the crap we risk our lives to get for you?" She was shaking, now, and Kumiko felt the strange need to cover her eyes, to let Yuuko have this moment in peace. "I c-can't do this."

"Yuuko-"

"I _can't,_ okay?" The sparks had become tiny puffs of flame, flickering from her palms as she stomped out of the room. Kumiko could only watch as she slammed the door. Taki's expression remained neutral, as always, and Kumiko briefly glanced at the door before turning her attention back to the table.

"Now, does anyone else wish to follow her?" Everybody shook their heads. Kumiko could have sworn that she saw Kaori lean against Asuka's shoulder, but she couldn't have been sure. "Very well, then. I suppose that there's been enough dramatics for tonight, and it happens to be the anniversary of a . . . personal event, for me, so it would be forgivable for this meeting to end earlier than usual."

"Leave, then." Asuka's tone, even and cold, made Kumiko shiver as she glared at Taki with a searing expression. "You don't live here."

"N-neither do I," Kumiko mumbled, so quiet that Asuka could hardly hear her. Taki walked out the door, leaving it open so that a cold draft blew through.

"It's coming undone," Asuka continued. "You know that, right, Oumae? It's all coming undone." She stressed every syllable, tutting with the condescending voice a teacher might use with an unruly student. Kumiko practically ran outside, Asuka's piercing gaze still following her as she ran down the street.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here." Reina - _of course_ it was Reina, who else would be standing on top of a building in the middle of the night - slid down from her perch with an uncomfortable _scree_ before neatly landing on her feet.

"You say that a lot." Reina shrugged.

"It's true. In any case, you seem distressed. Is everything alright?"

 _She knows what the powers are. She knows, and she won't say anything about them to anyone else._ "N-not really. Could we talk somewhere more private?"

"I think I might know just the place."

* * *

"Reina? Are you sure that this is, uh, safe?" The abandoned building, seemingly an office or something of the sort that had been left for scrap years before, still had a few working lights, and Kumiko awkwardly sat in a moth-eaten chair while Reina perched on a desk.

"I've been here countless times. Nobody else shows up, so we can talk safely."

"Nobody?" Kumiko echoed. Reina nodded.

"It's known as a danger zone. There are a few people who say that it's the source of some kind of radiation." There was a pause, a flex of her pale fingers curling around a pile of Post-It notes. "There are even a few who claim that it's the source of powers, in certain groups." Kumiko thought back to Aoi with a pang.

"Do y-you believe them? About the powers?" Reina tensed, the Post-It notes crumpling in her hand.

"No. Not at all. They couldn't be more wrong." Kumiko reached out to comfort her, to hold her shoulder as Haruka had done so many times, to calm the quivering woman in front of her, but Reina pulled away like a frightened cat.

"What do you know about them?" Aoi flashed through her mind again, her relentless pursuit of knowledge that led nowhere. In a moment of pure idealistic thought, Kumiko thought about bringing the two together, Reina telling Aoi everything she knew, showing her the book as everyone was at peace. Kumiko even indulged herself in thinking that perhaps Asuka and Haruka would finally reconcile, and they'd all live under Haruka's roof without anyone's lives at stake.

"I can't tell you that." Reina's words snapped Kumiko back to reality. "I _can't."_

"I understand," Kumiko murmured, even though she didn't, she didn't, she 'didn't.'

"There is one thing that I might be able to disclose, though, if you absolutely promise to keep it a secret." Reina hopped off of the desk and lay down on the floor, and it was at that moment that Kumiko noticed the shallow water covering the floor, rippling when Reina touched it. Wordlessly, Kumiko followed her lead and lay opposite her, so that she could just see the top of Reina's head, the cracked ceiling that barely managed to reveal a few stars in the sky, and not much else.

"W-what is it?"

"The powers . . . they don't come from this realm, this planet."

"What, is there, uh, another dimension or something?" Reina tensed up again, and Kumiko imagined her squinting at the ceiling.

"No." Reina turned around, wonder in her eyes as her body was practically set aglow with moonlight. "No, they come from the furthest reaches of space. They come from the stars, Kumiko."


	4. Chapter 4

**a/n:** writing this fic so close to s2 was a mistake

* * *

It took Kumiko a moment to register the words.

"The . . . the _stars?"_

"I told you that they had something to do with it earlier, correct? I suppose I was being a bit too vague. Here's how it tends to work, at least from what I've gathered - the powers happen entirely at random, with no warning or apparent differences in appearance or demeanor at the beginning. However, they always, _without fail,_ become strongest when meteors or asteroids or the like pass by this planet's orbit."

"They're just f-from space rocks, then?"

"Essentially. It sounds more intriguing when I say that they come from the stars, so I decided to go with that instead. We're all composed of stardust, in any case. I suppose that some people just have more of it than others."

"How'd you figure it out?" Reina flinched again.

"I told you, there are a lot of things that I'd prefer not to share." Kumiko remained silent. "It's getting late," Reina continued. "You should head home."

"Oh. Okay." Kumiko stood up, shaking the water from her coat as she picked up her bag from where it lay on a battered desk.

"We should set up some kind of . . . system." Reina didn't seem to mind that her cloak was dripping with water, simply following Kumiko as she walked down the rickety stairs. "To meet with each other, I mean. I was thinking about what you said - how I don't have a phone, and how that might make things a bit more difficult. I can't say that I've bought one, unfortunately, but I did find these." After a few seconds of digging around in her pockets, Reina produced two chipped flashlights. "I'll blink mine a few times if I'm ever nearby, and you can do the same." Kumiko tightly held the flashlight in her hands, half-expecting it to explode.

"Thank you," she murmured, and when she looked up, Reina was gone.

* * *

"Hey, Hazuki, what do you know about the stars?" The morning meeting was fraught with tension as Haruka nervously paced back and forth, Midori crouching on a table like a tiny ninja while Shuichi absentmindedly stirred his tea. Kumiko had hardly slept the previous night, keeping the flashlight held tightly in her hands in fear that she could lose it if she dropped it for even a moment.

"They're big balls of gas millions of miles away, right? I wasn't _always_ a superhero, I went to school when I was younger."

"W-when did you figure it out, then?"

"What, that I had powers? I dunno. I just started running really fast one day, and then _poof,_ everything changed and I was living with Midori and Haruka in this house!"

"You don't wonder about where they came from?"

"Not really, no. I'm supposed to focus on the present, make sure I'm making the world a better place, and that's what's important. Not the origin of the powers, or whatever."

"They'll be expecting us," Haruka said, butting into the conversation. "That's why all four of us need to lie low for the next several weeks, alright? I can't risk . . . I can't risk losing anything happening to any of you. Kumiko?"

"Y-yeah?"

"Would it be alright if you stayed here for a few weeks? I have a guest bedroom, and we'd make sure that it would be a good experience for you. It's just not safe, to be out on your own in the city with those _hooligans_ threatening us." Kumiko swallowed back a retort and instead simply nodded.

"I'll call my roommate," she muttered.

"We really wouldn't do this if we had any other choice, Kumiko," Haruka murmured. Kumiko didn't respond.

* * *

 _beep-beep-beep_

"Aoi? Aoi, p-please pick up, I need to tell you something."

 _beep-beep-beep_

"I'm going to be staying at, uh, a friend's h-house for the next few weeks. Something big came up, she needs my help. I promise I'll call back, okay?

 _beep-beep-beep_

"Take care of yourself, please." Kumiko shoved the phone in her pocket, looking at the nearly-bare bedroom decorated with frilly curtains and not much else before pressing her face on a pillow and letting out the loudest muffled scream in the history of that house.

* * *

 **Natsuki: heyo**

 **Natsuki: i don't trust that earpiece thing so i'm just using good old-fashioned texting**

 **Natsuki: anyway**

 **Natsuki: i didn't see you at work today**

 **Natsuki: is something wrong?**

Kumiko rolled over to fumble for her phone, unfurling herself from the blanket she had been wrapped in.

 **Kumiko: i had to**

 **Kumiko: uh**

 **Kumiko: go on a trip**

 **Kumiko: my cousin is getting married**

 **Kumiko: can't miss it**

 _I need to come up with better excuses._

 **Natsuki: alright**

 **Natsuki: i'll hold down the fort until you come back**

 **Natsuki: which'll be soon, i hope**

 **Natsuki: because as i'm typing this the power couple are trying to sneak an entire bed out of the store**

 **Natsuki: not even a chair or something**

 **Natsuki: a full-sized bed**

 **Natsuki: they're literally stealing a bed and thinking that i won't notice**

 **Kumiko: i'll come back as soon as i can**

 **Kumiko: believe me, i don't want to be here either**

 **Natsuki: you must really hate your cousin, huh?**

 **Kumiko: yeah**

 **Kumiko: right**

 **Kumiko: that**

 **Kumiko: stay safe, natsuki.**

 **Natsuki: okay, /mom/**

Kumiko chuckled, shutting the phone off as she nestled back into the bed. _I hope I'll be back soon, at least._ She was just about to try and sleep when she saw a flashing light in the distance. Squinting, she stood up and looked out the window. Haruka's neighborhood was almost entirely composed of the elderly, and so the whole street was dark save for the single blinking light. Kumiko lifted her flashlight tentatively, as if it would fall apart if she brandished it too tightly. _It's not her. It's just some random kid out too late, it 'can't' be her._ Still, she clicked the flashlight twice, holding it barely out of the open window.

"Reina?" she called. "Reina, are you there?" _This is dumb. She's not here_. Two clicks of the glowing, distant light.

"If you c-can hear me, click three times!" Three clicks. Kumiko peeked out of her bedroom door to see Hazuki and Midori sleeping soundly on their bunk bed, the top bunk occupied only by Midori's cartoonish stuffed tuba. Haruka could still be heard pacing downstairs, however, muttering things to herself that Kumiko couldn't even begin to figure out. "I'm supposed to stay here, so I'm going up to the roof, okay? Stay quiet." An affirmative click blinked on the street, and Kumiko began the ascent to the roof, precariously balancing herself on the windowsill. She could vaguely see a dark shape running down the sidewalk, now, and nearly fell before regaining her position. Reina looked up from the perfectly manicured lawn, waving slightly. Kumiko scrabbled for the top of the window.

"I can't scale flat walls, Kumiko," Reina said dryly. Kumiko guiltily looked down before sharply turning her gaze upwards - the drop from the bedroom window to the lawn was much steeper than it had appeared at first.

"There's, uh, a pipe on the side of the house, you could use that."

"I'll try." A few seconds, some muttered cursing, and a slightly torn cloak later, Reina had reached the roof, while Kumiko still dangled from the windowsill. "Here, take my hand." Reina stared down at her with inquisitive eyes not unlike those of a cat as she stretched out a pale hand. Kumiko graciously took it, and the sheer warmth that spread through her body, the way her heart seemed to break free of her chest, nearly caused her to fall again. Reina hoisted her up with surprising strength for someone of her size, and soon the two girls were sitting on Haruka's shingled roof.

"Y'know, it's been forever since I looked at the stars," Kumiko murmured. "Living a life like mine, you kinda spend more time looking behind you." Reina stayed silent. "So, uh, how'd you f-find me?"

"I didn't. I wander quite a bit, taking odd jobs throughout the day in order to pay for the . . . things that I need to ensure it's all fine in the night." There was a nervousness to Reina's gaze, eyes darting back and forth while she tugged at her cloak, and Kumiko knew that she was lying.

"What odd jobs?" she inquired.

"Moving someone's couch out of the way, taking down something that needs to be taken down, that sort of thing. I'm not a noble person, Kumiko, I'm not one of those who play hero while wasting their time away." Reina looked up at the cloud-covered moon, her clenched fingers telling Kumiko that there was still more than she was letting on. "I want to become special, in a way. I don't want to be the same as the others. I dictate my own agenda, I do things according to my own opinion and I don't find myself caring much for what anyone else thinks. What about you? Why are you here, Kumiko?" Kumiko gulped.

"You really want my sob story, huh?"

"I don't have anywhere better to be."

"Okay, but you asked for it." Reina nudged herself closer, and Kumiko tried her best to pretend that she didn't notice. "I met Hazuki and Midori - the two who live here - in high school. They disappeared without a trace during my third year, but Hazuki sent me one text saying that the two of them were fine."

"How did you find them?"

"They found me. The two of them, they, uh, sorta told me in one breath one day when I was just walking around, looking for work. They both had superpowers, a woman named Haruka had taken them in, and they were okay. That w-was after some other stuff had happened, though."

"Other stuff?" Reina quizzically tilted her head, and Kumiko was once again reminded of a cat.

"W-well . . . I came here to try and . . . escape, I guess. Fresh starts, new beginnings, all of that crap. The only person I knew from back home - at least, the only person I _thought_ I knew from back home - was my childhood friend, Aoi. I didn't know what she had been doing for all of those years, but she offered me a place to stay and I took it." Kumiko paused, unsure of quite what to say next. "I didn't . . . I didn't know that she had been spending the past few years chasing after so-called _superhumans._ Crazy, r-right? I thought that she was nuts."

"For how long?" Kumiko gulped.

"Long enough," she said, after another pause. "I met my closest friend at a new job, reconnected with Hazuki and Midori, made some friends at the nearby bar."

"Were you happy?" The question, unexpected and raw as it was, nearly caused Kumiko to fall off of the roof.

"I don't know," she murmured, studying the veins in her hands in an attempt to avoid Reina's piercing gaze. "I was h-happier than I am now. I know that, at least."

"What happened after that?"

"I saw a fight." Kumiko pulled her jacket closer, as if it could block out the memory if she kept it so tightly wrapped around her body. "Hazuki, Midori, and a woman I didn't know, fighting the friends I h-had made at the bar. I couldn't get in the middle of it - there was a girl shooting fire from her palms, what could I do? After a while . . . the woman on Hazuki and Midori's side had been cornered by Asuka - she's the leader of the other group."

"I know who she is, yes." Reina shifted uncomfortably, staring blankly ahead.

"You do?"

"I know everyone, to some extent." Kumiko decided not to ask what she meant.

"Anyway, I c-couldn't just let her die, lying there all helpless like that, so I knocked over a trash can and yelled as loudly as I could. It worked - I don't know how, but it did, and Asuka ran away with her friends in tow." Kumiko hoarsely chuckled. "Sounds pretty ridiculous, huh?"

"I suppose."

"I followed them, stupidly, because if Asuka died because of me . . . if I wasn't fast enough . . . then what good would I be? She saw me - enhanced senses, I guess-"

"You're also rather loud sometimes," Reina said, a bit bluntly.

"Thanks," Kumiko muttered. "She asked me if I had seen anything, I told her that I had, one thing led to another and then I was a part of her 'team,' led by a guy named Taki, who has us steal things while lying back in the safety of our meeting place." Reina flinched at the name. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Reina insisted. "I haven't heard the name in years, that's all. I had assumed that he had died, or something along those lines."

"Oh."

"How did you end up with this group, then? You're sleeping across the hall from the two friends you mentioned, so I'm assuming that they're not your sworn enemies."

"W-well, pretty early on into the whole 'supervillain' business, I realized that Asuka wouldn't be completely opposed to using violence to help her goals, and from the way that other woman had n-nearly killed her, I kinda decided to seek out the others to make sure that there wouldn't ever be a confrontation like that again."

"You're a double agent, then?"

"I guess. I'm basically an intern, as far as both of them are concerned, but I've, uh, kept them apart for about a year now and I'm going to keep on doing it until everyone is safe. I can't let my friends hurt each other, I _can't._ "

"That's a brave cause, I suppose."

"I don't give a crap about the 'greater good of the world' or whatever." Kumiko threw her hands in the air at 'the greater good of the world,' exasperated. "I just want to keep my friends safe. I don't know if that's selfish or selfless or _what,_ but it's all I've been doing and _god,_ Reina, I'm so scared."

"Of what?"

"Of _everything!_ I'm part of a superpowered _gang war,_ what part of that _isn't_ terrifying? I don't want to die, Reina, I just want everyone to be alright but they're _not_ and it's just . . . it's just scary."

"Is that why you're telling everything to a person you've just met, a person you hardly know?" Reina gently squeezed her hand. "Because you're afraid of running out of time?"

"I guess, yeah." Kumiko leaned a bit closer, the clouds drifting away from the moon. "Time, uh, kinda works differently when you're always ready to run for your life."

"We can't be as slow as we want to," Reina said, though the _we_ she referred to was a mystery.

"I wish we could," Kumiko murmured, pressing herself closer even as every instinct in her body screamed at her to stop. "I wish I could get to know you, Reina."

"I want to know you," Reina whispered, her face close enough for Kumiko to smell the rosemary on her breath.

"Me too," Kumiko replied, and suddenly Reina's lips were on hers and it felt like a moment of sheer _rightness_ in this horribly wrong world, and she never wanted it to stop as Reina tangled her hands in Kumiko's curls and Kumiko leaned in closer until she was caught in Reina's cloak and the two of them were out of breath and red in the face, laughing with relief. Reina pulled off the garment, flinging it to the ground, and Kumiko didn't even notice. "You're incredible, Reina," Kumiko breathed.

"I should leave," Reina said between kisses, though she made no move to actually stop. "I can't stay in one place for a long time."

"Who's after you?" The kisses had become slower, now, more cautious as Kumiko realized that this moment would soon end.

"I can't tell you that." Reina looked down at the lawn below, dark green in the moonlight. "I'm sorry, but I need to go now."

* * *

Kumiko wasn't entirely sure if she had dreamed the entire encounter the next morning, when she rolled out of the suffocating bedsheets onto the lush carpet, but the stirring in her chest seemed to tell her that it had been real, that she had really kissed the girl she hardly knew under the stars on the roof with the world passing by all too quickly.

"Kumiko?" Haruka called from downstairs. "There's something we all need to discuss. An . . . immediate threat, you might call it." Kumiko blinked.

 _Crap. She found the others, it's all going to end like this and all of my friends are going to get hurt and-_

"C'mon, slowpoke!" Hazuki chirped. "We don't have all day!"

"We don't _all_ have as much speed as you do, Hazuki!" Midori called after her, hurrying with a contrabass twice her size hefted above her head. Kumiko followed the two, nervousness wracking her body as she cautiously walked down the stairs. Haruka sat in a cracked leather chair with a dark object in her hands at the foot of the steps, and Kumiko's heart plummeted to the very pits of her stomach when she saw what she was holding.

"I was doing my usual rounds last night," she murmured timidly, toying with the torn fabric. "It was late when I found this on the property, and after running a few . . . tests-"

"In the middle of the night?" Hazuki piped up.

"It was urgent. I realized that it belonged not to the one I would've suspected - my old, erm, partner, Asuka Tanaka - but a different threat altogether. A trained assassin, a creature with hardly any sympathy for others, or at least that's what the records say. I don't know if any of it's true. I don't know a lot in general, to be quite honest, but I do know that this woman is dangerous. Reina Kousaka is her name, and if she comes near here at any point - if she even _dares_ to set foot upon this house - then we'll have to take her in to the authorities. I can't let any danger befall this city. Otherwise . . . otherwise, I might've left the only person who truly understood me for nothing." Kumiko clutched the ornate wooden railing, steadying herself as she felt her legs begin to turn to jelly.

"I, uh, n-need to go upstairs," she mumbled. "Maybe for a few days, is that okay? I haven't been feeling well lately, b-but I'll be okay as long as I'm alone for a while." Haruka nodded.

"Do as you must," she said. "We may have to lift this self-imposed house arrest sooner than I thought, in any case - with a threat like Reina Kousaka on the loose, a group of people with a warped idea of justice isn't our biggest problem. We might not even be safe here."

"Are we going on the run?" Midori squeaked.

"No, not yet. Kumiko, you should take the next few days to recover from whatever illness you might have suddenly contracted and then leave as soon as you can. This is not a problem that we should take lightly, is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Hazuki and Midori said in unison. Kumiko could only nod, stumbling up the stairs until her legs could hardly support her anymore and she collapsed on the bed.

 _Trained assassin. Creature with hardly any sympathy for others. That can't be right, can it? If Reina was really dangerous, if she really wanted to kill me, I'd already be dead. I've been vulnerable this whole time. God, I could've died. I'm not safe here, I'm not safe back at home, I'm not safe_ anywhere. _What kind of idiot was I, for thinking that I could have a happy ending with someone I hardly knew? Who_ does _that? Me, apparently. I need to see her again. I need to figure this all out._ Kumiko gathered up a pile of blankets - Haruka had overstocked on them, for how warm the house was, and Kumiko wondered if she was trying to compensate for something - and shoved them in the bed until they vaguely resembled something human-like. The sun gleamed outside, and Kumiko flung open the shutters for the second time in a matter of hours to begin her somewhat dangerous descent down the side of the house.

* * *

Kumiko had never considered herself to be a master of stealth, but it had never been more glaringly clear than in this moment, as she ran from the house with her hands clamped over her head in an attempt to hide herself.

"Crap," she muttered to herself, turning a sharp corner away from the peaceful neighborhood. "I'm going to be late for work." It was almost a relief, to be able to worry about such a mundane thing when three parts of her life were coming uncomfortably close to smashing into each other, and she could've laughed if not for the fact that she had run out of breath from running for five blocks without any breaks.

* * *

"I wasn't expecting ya to join us," Natsuki commented. Kumiko had practically thrown the door out of the way, panting and wheezing as she walked into the store with her back hunched. "Y'know, what with the whole 'I'm going to see my cousin's wedding' thing."

"She, uh, cancelled."

"Figures." Mizore looked up from a lovingly carved jewelry box to wave for a moment before turning her attention back to it.

"Kumiko, would you consider this to be a good present for someone?" Kumiko absentmindedly nodded.

"Y-yeah, sure," she said. "Natsuki, would it be, uh, okay if I just sat back in here for a while? I'm sorta jet-lagged."

"Why didn't you go home and rest, then?"

"W-well, I actually sorta feel most at home when I'm with you guys, so . . . yeah." Natsuki snorted.

"You're awfully sentimental, Kumiko."

"So are you."

"Hey, nice box!" Mizore let out a quiet yelp and hid the box under a frayed blanket. Nozomi strolled in, smiling as she always did, and Mizore's eyes darted back and forth as she pressed her body against the shelf.

"You weren't supposed to see that," she muttered quickly, releasing all of the words in one breath. "It was going to be a present. For our anniversary." Nozomi's cheeks turned red.

"Oh."

"I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Well, no time like the present - no pun intended - for me to give you mine, then!"

"We should head to the back. It might be nice to have a bit of privacy." Natsuki rolled her eyes, watching the two scurry to the back room like a pair of schoolgirls on their first date.

"It's kind of nice," Kumiko murmured. Natsuki blinked.

"Hmm?"

"The way those two are always together, I mean."

"Is this your thing about how it provides hope for the rest of us or whatever?"

"Y-yeah. There are people who'd kill to be like that - carefree, happy, _together._ They're not afraid of anything."

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

"What?"

"They weren't always like that. I've known 'em since they were in middle school, and there were two solid years filled with nothing but miscommunication and awkwardness, and guess who got thrown in the middle of it? Yours truly." Natsuki smiled at the memory, peeling at a fleck of paint on a shelf. "It turned out alright for them, though, so I don't see why it'd be any different for you and the girl who's clearly causing this whole mess." Kumiko nearly choked on her own breath, suddenly finding the concrete floor rather appealing.

"W-what girl? I didn't mention any girl!"

"C'mon, a _cousin's wedding?_ I've heard that one before. Not to mention the fact that ya literally _told me_ that you met a girl and she was really cool and all of that. So, how was it? Did ya sleep in dingy hotels, watching the stars from rooftops? If she's half as much of a hopeless romantic as you are, I'll bet that that's what you did."

"I . . . I d-didn't go on a trip with her. I just spent a night with her at a friend's house, that's all." Kumiko hated how easy it was for her to lie, how easy it was to warp any situation to take away any traces of the supernatural. "Nobody else knows, so you need to keep it a secret, okay?"

"Sure thing, Kumiko." Natsuki patted her on the shoulder, her smirk replaced by a genuine smile. "Just . . . stay safe, okay? It's easy to get tangled up in romantic stuff like this and lose yourself in the process, ya nerd."

"Thanks." Kumiko hoped that Natsuki couldn't see her eyes watering with gratitude as the sun began to set outside.

* * *

The night meeting was even tenser than usual, Asuka drumming her fingers on the table as Kaori paced back and forth.

"We're one person down," Kaori muttered. "It's already beginning to fall apart, Asuka, you have to _do something._ You're the leader, after all, can't you convince her to come back?" Asuka looked up, staring straight past Kumiko. It was as if she was invisible, a fly on the wall witnessing what might've been a couple's argument or something of the sort.

"Taki is the leader," Asuka replied evenly, her blue eyes glinting in the light of the dimming bulb. "Besides, Yoshikawa joined this merry band of robbers because of _you,_ not me. It's all at your mercy, you have to know that!" She cast out an arm in an overdramatic gesture, but Kaori hardly reacted.

"You're going to leave, too, right?"

"Ah, not yet, but who knows? Life is unpredictable, dear Kaori, and it's all such a blur that I might as well be leaving right now!"

 _You're only a few years older than me,_ Kumiko wanted to say. _Stop talking like an old lady looking back on the prime of her youth._ The door was pushed open suddenly, the cold draft causing all three to shudder, and Taki stepped inside.

"I'm afraid that we have pressing matters to discuss," he said in his always-calm voice. Kumiko wouldn't have been able to describe the feeling, looking back, but she knew it in that moment - pure, unadulterated dread spreading throughout her entire being until it nearly consumed her. "It appears that someone rather dangerous has resurfaced in our midst." Taki sat down, hoisting his black leather suitcase onto the table and shuffling through it until he found a neatly filed photograph on it. "An old pupil of mine, actually - a promising young student, a girl who could've held the world in her hands." He made no comment as to _what_ it was that he had tutored this student in - Kumiko's mind darted from music to killing to music again until her head spun. "However, she went rogue and has been hunted ever since." Taki set down the photograph, and without even looking at it, Kumiko knew the face that would stare back at her.

"Who is she?" Asuka asked, looking at the photograph with intrigue.

"Reina Kousaka." Taki drew a fancy pen from the side of the briefcase, lifting it over his head with a gesture that reminded Kumiko of a conductor. "Should you see her in any capacity, at any point . . ." He drove the pen through the photograph with surprising strength, puncturing a hole in the table. "Kill her on sight."


	5. Chapter 5

**a/n:** aaaaaaaand we're on the second-to-last chapter. this entire fic was just an excuse to give reina a 1920s flapper hat

* * *

Kumiko had gone back home without a single word of acknowledgement from Aoi, who sat slumped over her work as always. The image of Taki driving that pen through Reina's photograph, so cold and unfeeling, talking as if she were an animal to be contained, was enough to chill her to the bone, and she wanted nothing more than to find her, to ask her if any of it was true. As it turned out, that was exactly what she did as soon as she dropped her bags off at the floor-level apartment, heading back outside equipped with nothing but the flashlight and her phone in her hands. Frantically, she clicked the flashlight in every direction, for once wishing that Reina's strange abilities that seemed to allow her to show up on Kumiko's path at every opportunity would actually come in handy. It wasn't until she wandered in the direction of the abandoned office building that she saw one brief, bright click, and she immediately ran up the rickety stairs, feet nearly buckling beneath her by the time she reached the cracked roof.

"Reina?" she called, and she saw one click before a complete lack of response for the next half hour.

* * *

The night sky overhead blanketed the city in dark blue, millions of tiny twinkles dotting the landscape. Cars beeped below, people yelling at each other as they struggled to be heard over the rumble of nearby machinery. The scent of gasoline filled the air, pungent and overwhelming, but there was the slightest whiff of that crisp winter air that made Kumiko feel at ease. She inhaled the scent as one might inhale cigarette smoke, breathing it in and letting it rest on her tongue. The building she sat on, cold and covered in a thin layer of grime, felt uneven to the touch as she gripped the sides and looked back and forth for her companion. There was, of course, a sense of worry in the air, the knowledge that Reina very well might not come at all still lingering in her mind, but she tried her best to keep the thought pushed back, locked away in a box somewhere with everything else she tried to suppress.

"I wasn't expecting you to stay here," Reina said, her trademark cloak replaced by what looked to be an oversized leather jacket that flopped over her hands. Kumiko nearly fell off the building.

"You've been saying that kind of thing ever since we met, Reina." Kumiko leaned back to squeeze her hand. "I'm n-not leaving, okay? I'm never going to leave you." Reina tilted her head.

"Is that a good thing?"

"W-well, it depends on what you think!" Kumiko stuttered, pushing herself back so that the street below wasn't such an immediate danger. "It depends on who you are, I guess."

"Hmm?"

"Everyone said that you're an assassin." The words came out before Kumiko could stop them, and she quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

"Do you believe them?" Reina's words had a teasing tone, but Kumiko could tell that she was deep in thought.

"No," Kumiko admitted truthfully. "I don't." Reina tensed, pushing up one of the jacket's sleeves.

"You're lying."

"I'm not!"

"How can I know that?" Kumiko stood up to meet Reina's violet gaze.

"I'll t-take you on a date tomorrow," she said finally. "You can come to the antiques shop, my second home. You wouldn't take an assassin to a place that important, r-right?"

"I'll accept that offer," Reina murmured, "-but only on one condition."

"Yeah?"

"You'll introduce me to your friend, the one you mentioned before." Kumiko nodded.

"Y-yeah, of course. I'll see you tomorrow, Reina." Reina smiled, pressing a gentle kiss to Kumiko's cheek before dashing off into the night. Kumiko gingerly touched the space where Reina's lips had been scarcely ten seconds before, and it was all she could do to stop the grin that spread across her face.

* * *

Kumiko practically skipped back to the flat, despite herself, flinging herself onto the bed and clutching the flashlight to her chest.

"She's not an assassin," she whispered to herself. "She's nothing dangerous, she's nothing terrible. She's a girl, she's just a girl like me, and things might just end up being okay." The clouds still covered the stars and moon, wispy cotton candy dyed dark blue, but Kumiko couldn't be bothered to look out the window, simply falling into a wonderfully deep sleep in which the world was just a bit less terrifying. _Things might just be okay._

* * *

Kumiko woke up early the next morning, knowing full well that Haruka had advised her to stay away and wouldn't have any need for her presence in the house, not when the supposed 'deadly woman' who wore clothing too long for her body and dashed along buildings to click flashlights and pull Kumiko into an embrace when there wasn't anything left to say was on the loose. Taki's cold expression still haunted her, hanging in her mind like a pile of cobwebs left unchecked, but she did her best to keep that away as she headed in the direction of the antiques shop. She hadn't paid much heed to the weather recently - why should she, after all, when almost all of her time was spent indoors, making plans with people who looked over her as she tried to stop them from destroying each other? Yet, the autumn air washed over her like an old friend, and she breathed it in greedily.

"How's she going to find the place?" Kumiko wondered aloud as the store came into view. Her answer, as it turned out, came rather quickly in the form of Reina nearly barreling into her, head kept low as she looked back and forth to make sure that she wasn't being followed.

"I wasn't expecting there to be as many antiques shops here," she said. "This is the fourth one I've been to."

"That'd, uh, explain the lack of business," Kumiko mumbled. "I'll have to tell Natsuki, she doesn't get out much."

"Natsuki?"

"She's sorta the manager of the place. Our boss trusts her, so she leaves her in charge most of the time."

"Does she . . . know?"

"Know what?"

"That I'm being pursued, that both of us are in danger." Reina watched the street, still keeping her eyes downcast. Kumiko reached to hold her hand, and Reina took it. The sensation sent the same warmth that Kumiko had come to expect bursting through her veins, that feeling of _home_ and _belonging,_ and Kumiko never wanted to let go.

"We s-should go inside," she muttered. Reina nodded, and the two stepped into the antiques shop. Natsuki turned from her precarious position on a coffee table that looked as if it had seen better days to greet Kumiko.

"Hey, Kumi- wait, who's this?" Hopping off of the coffee table, Natsuki looked down at Reina with a wry smirk. "Could ya be the girl she's been swooning over for the past two weeks?" Reina silently nodded. "You're not the talkative type, huh?"

"There's, uh, some bad stuff going on where she lives," Kumiko blurted out, racking her brain for lies that didn't involve cousins or weddings. "W-we're not really supposed to be out here, so she's, uh, h-hiding." Natsuki's expression softened.

"Don't worry, then. Nobody comes out here, you'll be okay." Reina murmured her thanks. Natsuki rummaged through a pile of things in the back room, putting aside lamps and heavy books until she let out a triumphant _aha!_ "Here, take this." Kumiko raised an eyebrow.

"It's a hat."

"It's a _disguise,_ if ya use it right." Natsuki promptly dropped the hat - looking like some kind of relic from nearly a hundred years ago, a black feather poking out from the side - on Reina's head. Reina seemed annoyed, but she didn't make any move to take it off. "Anyway, feel free to hang around here for however long you need. I'll be behind the counter." Kumiko plopped down on an armchair, and Reina followed suit across from her.

"She's enthusiastic," Reina commented. "How long have you two known each other?"

"Two years. She's, uh, pretty great." Reina pulled off the hat and studied it, turning it around in her hands.

"It must be nice."

"Eh?"

"Having a friend like that, I mean. A supporter, someone relentlessly caring like that. I can't be bothered to get close to someone like that. I've never cared for it, myself, but it's still a nice thought."

"I g-guess I get what you mean." The two sat in a comfortable silence for a while, after that, with nothing but the occasional din of the antiques shop to disturb the peace. Kumiko eventually found herself sliding over to Reina's armchair until they were both curled up in the too-small space, a tangle of limbs and clumsy kisses in corners where nobody could see them. Natsuki sometimes gave knowing smirks from her position at the counter, and Kumiko let herself forget for just a few hours, let herself sit with the girl she could fall in love with, given enough time, and it was almost as if nothing scary at all awaited her outside the dusty glass window when Natsuki announced that the shop was closing for the day and Kumiko would have to walk her 'gal pal' home in ten minutes.

It wasn't the crackle of her earpieces that alerted Kumiko that something was wrong, nor was it the way the sky seemed to glow just a bit more orange than usual, nor was it the dark shapes she saw running towards each other. It was the smell, seeping in through the tiniest cracks of the shop, sickeningly sweet and thick like puffy clouds.

 _Asuka's poison._ "Natsuki, you need to hide in the back room!" Kumiko snapped, her voice shaking. Natsuki looked up from the cash register.

"What?"

"Go! Shut the door, keep Nozomi and Mizore with you!" The earpieces were working, now, contrasting voices yelling frantic commands as the wind roared outside.

 _"Kumiko? Kumiko, they're here, the criminals are here, hurry up!"_

 _"We're finally facing them, we're finally doing this, we need you here! Nobody would hurt an innocent shop worker, right?"_

 _"They're getting closer!"_

 _"Haruka is at the forefront!"_

 _"They're going to attack!"_

 _"They're going to attack!"_

Kumiko could hardly breathe, raggedly gasping as she stood from the armchair and stumbled outside with Asuka and Haruka still screeching in her ears.

"Reina, s-stay behind with Natsuki and the others! I c-can't risk them seeing you!"

"Do you honestly believe that I'll just let you die?"

" _Yes!_ Yes, I do believe it, because why wouldn't you?" Kumiko was halfway out the door at this point, pushing down the tears threatening to break past her eyes. "Y-you're different from the others, Reina! You know what you're doing, you won't let anything stop you! What about all of that self-preservation crap, how you go on your own agenda? What about being special, Reina?" Reina stood in stunned silence for just long enough for Kumiko to dash out the door and run into the street, where Hazuki and Midori dodged Kaori's attacks - attacks that only seemed to come in the form of calming words, and Kumiko vaguely remembered a mention of a mild form of overpowering someone's free will, a kind of hypnosis. Midori inched closer and closer as Hazuki ran around Kaori in circles. Neither of them seemed to notice the quiet standoff that was occurring between Asuka and Haruka, the tension that could've been cut in half.

"You've gathered quite the army," Asuka said, whipping off her glasses with a dramatic flourish. "Two children, ah, what a terrifying force! What do you want with me, Haruka?"

"You . . . you still work for Taki, right?"

"He's offered us a purpose, a place to put our money where we know that it'll be used well instead of dropping it off at strangers' houses in hopes it'll be okay. He's brought this little band of misfits back together." Asuka's expression had lost all of its playfulness, instead grimly standing her ground as Haruka trembled. Kumiko could only watch.

"At what cost? I don't see Yuuko anywhere, did something happen to her? Was this really worth following someone's orders, Asuka? Do you have any regrets?" Haruka was on the brink of tears, now, collapsing on her knees, and Kumiko wanted nothing more than to comfort her. "Don't you care about the others, about _us,_ at all?" Asuka raised her head, eyes turned down in a cold stare.

"No." A puff of dark gray smoke, nearly tinted green, exploded from Asuka's hand, and Kumiko couldn't take it anymore.

"Stop it, all of you!" Five heads turned to face her, and she was about to step forward when something - _someone_ \- pushed past her and threw herself in the center of the road, leaving a feathered hat in her wake.

"I don't see Taki here," Reina said. Asuka smirked, wiping her hands on her pants as if she didn't even see Haruka lying in a heap three feet in front of her.

"Ah, Kousaka, so you've finally stepped into the spotlight? It's about time."

"Hazuki . . . Midori . . . s-stop her . . ." Haruka limply reached for Reina's ankle, barely brushing it before she collapsed again.

"Don't hurt her!" Kumiko yelled out, running forward to block Reina from the two groups.

"Kumiko?" Asuka put her glasses back on, wiping some dust from the lenses. "You've become quite a hero, hmm, standing up for someone such as herself?"

"You've been working with them?"

"S-stay away!" Kumiko hoped that the roar of the cars nearby and the howling wind would be enough to hide how terrified she sounded, how terrified she was.

"Kumiko, have you been working with Asuka this whole time?" Kumiko didn't need to turn around to know that Haruka was staring up at her with disbelief in her face as she crawled closer to Reina and tried to grab at her again to no avail.

"Wait, you're a double agent?" Asuka bent down to meet Kumiko at eye level, lips pulled into a tight smile. "All of that talk about heroes and villains, then, you weren't just pulling it from nowhere? I'm impressed, if we're being honest." Kumiko stepped back, and Asuka promptly grabbed Reina by the scruff of her shirt. "And then, of course, there's _you."_ Kumiko ran to push Asuka over, but Hazuki was at her side in an instant, holding her back with Midori close behind.

"It's not worth it, Kumiko!" Hazuki insisted.

"She's done horrible things!" Midori squeaked.

" _What_ horrible things?! She's just a girl, Midori! She's j-just a girl like me!"

"We're going to take her to the police, Asuka!" Hazuki continued, letting go of Kumiko for just a moment to try and yank Reina from Asuka's grasp.

"Do you expect anyone like that to be merciful?" Kaori said, standing at Asuka's side. "It's horrible, but . . . sometimes it's easier, so much easier, to just stop the suffering now." Kumiko looked from side to side, from Reina being sloppily tugged back and forth like a game of human tug-of-war, and she began to feel her legs go numb, began to feel her entire body tremble under the weight of this life she had never wished for. Reina fell to her knees, eyes squeezed shut. The few feet of distance felt like a million miles.

 _"Stop!"_ Kumiko turned to see Reina before she was suddenly in her face, holding her cheek with a clammy, sweating hand. Asuka stood, frozen, with her hand beginning to emanate that damnable smoke, while Hazuki and Midori sprung for her mid-leap. Haruka lay with one arm outstretched on the ground.

"Reina? W-what'd you do?" Reina stared at her own hands, nearly shaking.

"I don't know," she muttered. "I'm not sure, this has only happened once."

"When?"

"We don't have time for this, Kumiko. You need to leave."

"I c-can't leave without you."

"I'll be fine." The frozen people began to twitch, looking like a barely-paused video. "You have to go, _now!"_ The clouds started to swirl, dark and foreboding. Reina fell to her knees again, sweat dripping down her forehead. "I can't do this for more than a few minutes. Kumiko, you need to hurry. _Please._ " Kumiko swallowed back a sob as she slowly backed away, breaking into a run as soon as Reina was out of sight. She didn't run fast enough to miss the beam of light that burst from the ground behind her, the last yell she heard from Reina before she fell silent. Kumiko found her way back to the flat, her chest heaving, and collapsed on the couch before letting herself burst into tears.


	6. Chapter 6

**a/n:** natsuki probably cried over guardians of the galaxy at least twice

maybe the real villain was the friends we made along the way

also i wrote this entire chapter in one sitting and...yeah

* * *

Kumiko didn't leave her room for two days after that, the forest-green walls seeming almost like a prison. She stayed, lying in her room with regret twisting its way through every part of her like a horrid parasite. The world outside was too intimidating, too terrifying, and too _empty._ Reina was gone, probably dead or locked away in some government facility, and Kumiko had been powerless to stop any of it.

"Idiot," she muttered to herself for the twelfth time that hour. "You could've done something, you could've gone after her. Stupid, stupid idiot." Kumiko rolled over and pressed her face into a pillow, hoping that it would somehow stop her from thinking about Reina's face, so filled with desperation and fear, but it did nothing except for block out the light that had started to stream from her closed door. _Wait._ "W-who's there?" she asked, half-expecting Taki to stroll in with that leather briefcase.

"It's me." Kumiko's head shot up. Aoi stood in the doorway, her hair neatly tied in two braids, and it occurred to Kumiko that she hadn't really seen her in months. "The lights in the house have been off for two days, I was starting to worry."

"I'm f-fine," Kumiko lied.

"There's something I haven't told you, Kumiko," Aoi murmured, flicking on the lightswitch.

"What?" Aoi sat down on the bed next to her, hands neatly folded in her lap.

"You remember my essay, I'm sure."

"Yeah. I guess there's something I should tell you, too, then. The powers are-"

"I know." Kumiko's eyes widened.

"You do?" Aoi opened her hands, and in her palm rested a pale green plant, just barely spouting and curling towards the ceiling.

"I've been trying to find the source of it for years, now, but I've been afraid to seek out someone to explain it. I'm not the only one, but I can't risk this falling into the wrong hands. It's why I've been pretending to work on that essay for years, now - it gives me an excuse to learn about the powers under the guise of a delusional woman with a purely scientific interest in them."

"I met a girl," Kumiko said, unsure of how to respond to Aoi's sudden explanation. "I don't know if I love her, not yet - I didn't really have enough time to figure that out - b-but now she's trapped or hurt or dead and probably so, so scared and it's all my fault and I can't do _anything_ about it, Aoi, I'm _useless_ and I can't-"

"Kumiko."

"Eh?"

"I'm sorry that I haven't been here for you the past few years, I really am, but if you really do love her, if you even think that you _could_ love her, then you'll find a way. You have people standing behind you, right? You can do anything, with people behind you." Aoi stood up, smiling softly as the plant shrunk back into her hand. "I know you'll figure it out. Why not start with your workplace? I'm sure that they'll understand."

"Thank you." Kumiko didn't care, for once, if her roommate saw the glistening tears falling in droplets on the bedsheets. "Thank you so, so much."

* * *

Kumiko ran the whole way to the antiques shop until her legs burned and her breath was caught somewhere in her throat, slamming open the door. Natsuki leaned against a shelf, fiddling with a wooden chess piece.

"It wouldn't hurt to take the bus once in a while, Kumiko," she sighed. "Anyway, where have you been? It's kinda been tough without you, if ya can't tell from Nozomi and Mizore still _snogging_ in the back room instead of doing actual work."

"I need to talk to you about something."

"Yeah?"

"In private. There's a janitor's closet in here, right?"

"I think so, yeah." Kumiko grabbed her hand and ran for the closet, shutting the door and pulling on the string that lit up the flickering bulb above.

"Superpowers are real, and I've been working as a double agent for over a year now to keep two rivaling groups from killing each other. Reina _might_ have the power to mess with time, I've had several threats on my life, and now she's gone and I need your help." Natsuki blinked.

"Finally!" she laughed. "That explains like, _half_ of the crap you've been pulling ever since ya started working here. Anyway, I need to get out of this closet soon, there's a girl coming in for a second date with yours truly right about . . . now." Natsuki pushed open the closet door just in time for Kumiko to see a woman step through the door. Her jaw dropped as soon as she saw the ribbon bouncing in the wind.

 _"Yuuko?"_

 _"Oumae?"_

"You two know each other?" Natsuki looked from Kumiko to Yuuko, utterly confused.

"You, uh, owe me your life or something, right?" Kumiko asked, gears whirring in her brain. Yuuko nodded. "I'm not one to usually ask for favors, but I think I might have a plan. You don't have to do it, though, only if you really want to and don't feel uncomfortable or anything. Natsuki, you'd need to help."

"Well, I don't have anything better to do with my Friday afternoon."

* * *

"Unhand me, you lawless heathen!" Kumiko kicked open the door to reveal Asuka and Kaori packing up piles of boxes. Natsuki held Yuuko with a harmless vintage butter knife to her throat, standing with her most menacing glare when Kaori looked up.

"Yeah, so . . . tell us where Kousaka is, or ribbon girl gets it, or something."

"Be more into it!" Kumiko hissed before turning her attention back to Asuka and Kaori. "We've come to make a trade," she said, folding her hands behind her back. Asuka stood up.

"What do you want, Oumae?"

"We, uh, g-give you back Yuuko here, and then you tell us what you did with Reina."

"Oh, what a horrid day!" Yuuko yelled, weakly pretending to squirm from Natsuki's grasp. "To think, it'd end like this!"

"Well, that's too bad," Asuka sighed, "-because she's not here. We left as soon as Kousaka did her little scream-thing. I wouldn't want to be injured, after all!" She made a dramatic gesture with her arms, gingerly pressing a hand to her forehead. "Besides, we have nothing left to lose."

"I went downstairs to try and figure out the origin of Kousaka's powers, and we came upon some of Taki's documents," Kaori said. "He's been taking all of the money for himself."

"We've been played!" Asuka yelled out, her tone exaggerated but the contempt in her eyes so very real.

"Asuka told him to leave and never come back."

"I really, honestly didn't care, but it angered me all the same."

"Even you, the one without morals, insists that he performed an evil deed! Yet, does it make you any better if you let me die?!"

"We're not doing that anymore," Natsuki muttered, setting Yuuko down. "Have you ever considered a career in acting?"

"Anyway-" Asuka shot a glare in Yuuko's direction "-I'm not going to grovel at Haruka's feet, but I guess there's no better place to turn, now. We're not safe here, not anymore." Kumiko tried to force down the smile on her face, but to no avail. Hope, she had realized, was a somewhat powerful tool, even in moments such as these.

"Great," she mumbled. "Could you, uh, come with us, then?"

* * *

The walk to Haruka's house was awkward, to say the least, as Yuuko followed Kaori's every move while Kaori followed Asuka's every move, and Kumiko and Natsuki were left to shuffle behind the three. The awkwardness of the walk, however, couldn't compare to when Kumiko was forced to ring the doorbell to the house itself, where Midori found herself greeting a double agent, two of Haruka's former friends, and a complete stranger. She nearly shut the door when Kumiko held it open with her foot.

"P-please," she said. " _Please_ , just let us see her." Midori cautiously stepped aside, bristling when Asuka patted her on the head. Haruka lay on a makeshift mattress in the living room, bandaged and exhausted as Hazuki and Shuichi fretted over her. Neither of them looked like they had gotten any sleep.

"What's _she_ doing here?" Hazuki yelped, pointing to Asuka, who promptly flopped down on a couch.

"Ah, you've improved your living situation since our last meeting," she sighed. "I like what you've done with the place."

"We're not here to get comfortable," Yuuko growled. "My two . . . accomplices would like to stay here for a few days, but more importantly, we're looking for the location of one Reina Kousaka."

"We're sorry for intruding upon your home," Kaori murmured. Asuka rolled her eyes.

"Goody two-shoes," she muttered. Haruka sat up, wincing as she did so.

"We didn't do anything to Kousaka," she said. "Hazuki and Midori were just about to carry me back home when they saw her disappear into some kind of hole, almost as if the sky had become the ground for just that moment and then swallowed her whole. She seemed to know what was happening, though, right? Isn't that what you two said?" Hazuki nodded.

"It looked like a black hole," Midori added. "I could hardly look away."

 _A black hole. Space. Wait._ "The stars!" Kumiko blurted out.

"What?"

"We need to go to her apartment!"

"Why should we?" Asuka asked. Haruka nodded in agreement.

"I'm not asking you to go with me," Kumiko murmured. "I haven't done anything that'd give any of you a reason to go with me. I've been lying for over a year, now. Still, I d-don't think that any of you wanted to hurt anyone. Right?" Kaori nodded. "So, _please,_ just help me find this girl again and try to save her from whatever's happened. She's just an innocent person, she didn't ask for any of this. _Please._ " Natsuki was the first to stand up.

"I trust her," she said. Hazuki shakily rose to her feet.

"Kumiko was one of my best friends in high school," she piped up. "I don't think she'd lie unless she really, absolutely needed to! Right, Midori?"

"I still don't think that this is safe," Midori squeaked. "But I _do_ know that she played the euphonium alongside me a long time ago, and nobody with such wonderful music could be too bad."

"I don't give a damn," Asuka sighed. "Still, a bit of good old-fashioned redemption never hurt anyone, right?"

"I'll follow her," Kaori said, protectively clutching Asuka's arm.

"And _I'll_ follow her," Yuuko added, grabbing onto Kaori's arm in turn. All eyes were on Haruka, now.

"If what you've said is true," she began, "-if Kousaka really is just a lost child caught up in this awful world, than I suppose I should help, too."

"Happy?" Natsuki muttered. "We're all standing now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle." Yuuko snorted. "What? Superheroes are real, right? Sue me if it's not okay to drop in a movie quote once in a while."

* * *

The group - eight, now - ran through the city until Kumiko started to recognize the streets, aimlessly racing for an apartment that might not even be there anymore.

"Reina!" she yelled, even though she knew it was useless. The flashlight, tied to her pants with a red string, bounced against her thigh. "I could've _sworn_ that it was around here somewhere."

"Haruka!" Midori held up a scrap of dark fabric triumphantly at the foot of an unfamiliar building. Haruka hobbled over, inspecting the fabric closely. "Wasn't this part of that cloak you found earlier?" Kumiko felt a surge of warmth in her chest, some kind of tiny hope forcing its way through the near-impossible odds.

"I could be mistaken, but it looks identical." Kumiko looked up at the building - different from what she had remembered, looking more like an office or an old school than anything, but she rested her hand on the doorknob anyway.

"She's here," Kumiko murmured. "I can feel it." Yuuko impatiently stomped her foot.

"What're we _waiting_ for, then?" she snapped. "Let's _go!"_ Kumiko pushed open the door, and the group of eight surged through, running up the stairs with as much speed as a gathering involving an exhausted store manager and an injured woman could. Hazuki reached the top before half of them were even past the first floor. Still, they got to Reina's floor soon enough, and Kumiko felt a newfound burst of energy pulse through her veins.

"She's closer!"

"What a dork," Natsuki chuckled. "Love'll do that to ya, huh?" Kaori elbowed her way past her.

"Keep going!" she called. Natsuki followed the orders, trailing at the back but still keeping pace with Yuuko.

"I think this is it!" Kumiko was sweating and out of breath, her legs just about to collapse beneath her, but she stopped at the apartment marked _307_ and she knew. "Midori, could you, uh, b-break the door?"

"I hope this isn't someone else's home," Midori squeaked as she punched the wooden door down, revealing a near-empty apartment. Kumiko recognized the books lying in a corner.

"It's hers," she murmured. "There's something in those books, I know it."

"You 'know' a lot of things, Oumae," Asuka sighed, putting a hand on her hip. "I can't begin to wonder how many of them are true, but I'll follow your lead for the time being." Kumiko looked through the books, flipping from page to page as Reina's nonsense words passed the page. The diagrams were plain as day, however, and Kumiko soon stumbled upon a drawing of an angular stick figure falling from what looked to be a swirling black vortex.

"It's this," she said, pointing to the page. The seven gathered around it. "This is what you two saw, right?" Hazuki and Midori nodded.

"It's written in gibberish, though," Kaori noted.

"How're ya gonna _true love_ your way out of this one?" Natsuki said, and if Kumiko had looked up, she would've seen her friend look nearly defeated, the journey seemingly at its unfortunate end.

"I don't know," she murmured. "I d-don't . . . I don't know." Yuuko pulled up the corner of Reina's carpet.

"Hey, everyone? I think you're gonna want to see this." Kumiko turned, and she instinctively clamped a hand over her mouth. A hole, identical to the one in the book, stared back up at her, occasionally reaching out a tendril that weakly grasped her foot.

"Kumiko?" Natsuki was still bent over the book, running her finger along Reina's code. "Ya said this was written in her own secret language, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"It's not, it's just a way of categorizing things I learned at the antiques shop back when it was a real place and not a mess of lovable nerds making out set to letters. If this is right, apparently the powers are tied to . . . uh, space? Or emotions, I can't exactly tell, but it's one of those two."

"I can vouch for the emotional one," Yuuko supplied, a puff of fire bursting from her palm.

"Anyway, this thing came from wherever the powers came from, and it sucks people in, I think?" One of the tendrils grabbed Asuka's arm, and it took Kaori and Midori's combined strength to drag her back. "There's a way to get 'em back, but she says that this is all theoretical or something. It might just keep them down forever."

"What's the way to get them back? I'll do it."

"Kumiko, you could _die,_ " Haruka breathed. "Let me do it, _please._ "

"It takes the more power-prone ones more quickly, that's what it says here, which would explain why it's especially going for poison lady over here." Asuka had backed against the wall at this point. "Our best bet would be a regular human."

"I told you, I'll do it," Kumiko insisted. It hardly took a second for Haruka to wrap her in a hug.

"Stay safe," she murmured. "You have a home with us, okay? All of you do, I promise. Kousaka, too." Haruka expectantly looked up at Asuka, who still leaned against the wall.

"I'm not a touchy-feely person, Oumae." She half-smiled, a crooked grin that looked anything but genuine but seemed as real as Asuka could get. "Besides, I'm not getting near that thing. Good luck."

"Good luck!" Hazuki and Midori echoed. Yuuko and Kaori nodded.

"Get your girlfriend back safe and sound, Kumiko," Natsuki said. "I need to make sure she's worth all of this." Kumiko held down tears before jumping into the hole, turning on the flashlight with a _click._

* * *

"Reina?" Kumiko was falling slowly, she realized, and the flashlight didn't seem to actually be illuminating anything. She could still see the apartment from above, but that was it. Finally, after what felt like hours (even though she could still just barely see the apartment above) she hit the bottom with a _thud._

"Hello?"

"Reina!" Kumiko looked around wildly, trying to find the source of the voice.

"I'm here." Kumiko shone the flashlight in the direction of the sound, and Reina stared back at her, violet eyes glowing in the artificial light. "How did you get here?"

"Long story." Kumiko reached out a hand. "Come back with me, they're all waiting for us."

"I can't," Reina replied. "Even if there was a way for both of us to get all the way up there, even if I _could_ get back, there's nothing left back there. Look at this, what has any of it caused?" Reina looked down, and Kumiko hadn't realized until that moment just how _tired_ she looked, how beaten and worn she seemed.

"You have me," Kumiko said. "You have all of the others, too. I d-don't know how long things'll last - nothing lasts forever, of course I know that - but for now, they're a little family. They'll be okay with it all, I know they will."

"Even if I go back now, I'll be the villain."

"I'll be a villain with you, then!" Reina stared back at her, disbelief plain on her face.

"You'll stay with me?" Reina stepped closer, tentative, and Kumiko let her rest a warm hand on her cheek.

"If I don't, you can kill me."

"I would actually kill you, you should know that." Kumiko let out a light chuckle, echoing in the space.

"I'm prepared for that, Reina." The words that followed felt strange, like she was just growing into them, but nothing had been as certain as what Kumiko said. "This is a confession of love, after all." Reina took Kumiko's outstretched hand, and Kumiko could feel the light of the apartment getting closer.

"We might not be able to get out," Reina said, nervousness creeping into her voice, and Kumiko pressed closer to her.

"They'll figure something out," she replied. "The others, I know they will."

"Hey, Kumiko!" Kumiko looked up. Natsuki dangled a few feet above her, held up by a chain of people. "Grab on already, will ya? This is _killing_ my back, and I need to carry stuff for the boss tomorrow." Kumiko kept a tight hold on Reina's hand as she reached for Natsuki's with her other arm, and slowly but surely, the two were dragged upwards. After what felt like an eternity, Kumiko felt the scratched hardwood floor under her arm, and she flopped down on it with a laugh of relief.

"We made it!" she yelled, rolling over as she pulled Reina into an embrace. The seven pulling the two collapsed on the floor in varying degrees of exhaustion. Yuuko pushed the carpet back onto the hole. "Reina, we made it! We're here!" Reina smiled, just slightly, and Kumiko thought that it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. "We're okay, Reina." Natsuki smirked.

"I knew that you kids could do it," she chuckled.

"It'd be best to leave," Haruka said. "I don't know what that . . . _thing_ could do, now that we've been so close to it." Everyone nodded, and soon there were nine women in the street, panting and laughing as they took the last bus of the evening back to the house.

* * *

"Wait, you two are _leaving?_ " Hazuki yelped, nearly driving her fork through the table. It had been an unspoken agreement to stay with Haruka and have dinner with her, and the nine now sat at a long table while Shuichi looked on in confusion. "When? Why?"

"It appears that there have been . . . misconceptions, about my field of work," Reina explained. "While I often associated with dangerous people, I never once harmed a living soul in hopes that it would keep me away from the authorities and the people who trained me, attempted to harness my powers for their own purposes."

"It'd be safer if we left for a while," Kumiko added, squeezing Reina's hand under the table. Reina idly twirled a strand of her hair between her fingers.

"We do plan on coming back, eventually. Perhaps not soon, but someday."

"It's like a honeymoon, then!" Midori had been in a cheerier mood than usual, but nobody questioned it.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Oh, of course you're eloping!" Asuka had tied a cloth napkin around her wrist and held it to her chest. "The youths of today, so quick to do things!"

"You're only a few years older than them, Asuka," Kaori chided.

"I'm not going back to any of your superhero stuff, you all know that, right?" Yuuko flicked her ribbon irritably. "I'm going to work at that musty place with the old stuff." Natsuki's expression brightened.

"Does that mean you'll make those two in the back room jealous?"

"Sure, whatever, as long as I get paid. I'm pretty sure I remember one of them from middle school, actually . . ." While Yuuko mused over past events, Haruka patted Kumiko on the shoulder.

"You've been so brave," she said softly. "Both of you, _all_ of you, you've all been so brave. Please, just make sure that you'll stay in touch when you go away." Kumiko nodded, still blinking back tears.

"We will," she promised. "I'll keep in touch with all of you, I will."

"We should get going," Reina said, standing up from the table. "There'll be investigations into the light coming from my apartment soon, it'd be best to leave before then."

"Hey, don't forget this." Natsuki pulled something rumpled from her pocket, and Kumiko recognized it as the hat she had given Reina just a few days before. "Ya need a disguise, right?" Kumiko didn't try to stop the tears this time as she began to walk towards the door with her hand intertwined with Reina's.

"Thank you," she barely managed to make out. "Thank you all, thank you so, _so_ much." With that, the two girls stepped out into the crisp fall air, ready for whatever the world decided to throw at them.

* * *

 **a/n:** well...that happened.


End file.
